Industrial heritage conservation group buys water tower

DEN BOSCH – The cost of maintaining its redundant water tower, even though it was an architectural gem, had become a drain on the municipal budget of the North Brabant capital. Only the insurance and basic annual upkeep extracted 40,000 euros from Den Bosch’s budget, prompting the municipality to offer the building for sale. The new owner is a conservation society for industrial heritage sites (known by its acronym BOEi), which wants to restore the tower to its former glory. The non-profit group acts as developer of industrial heritage sites, provide property management and can be contracted as a consultant. It owns a series of sites, which remain accessible to the public as a museum, a restaurant or as a public facility, one way or other. In recent years, the 1885 Den Bosch water tower, which resembles a medieval tower, had been used as youth centre. More about the group can be found at www.boei.nl.