THE HAGUE – The Netherlands has ended funding for a planned government real estate department in Curaçao after more than €533,000 was spent through the Temporary Work Organization (TWO) without the department becoming operational.
The new unit was intended to professionalize the Curaçao government's management of its extensive real estate portfolio. Among other responsibilities, it was supposed to prepare business cases to determine whether the government should rent, purchase or use its own properties and eventually coordinate maintenance of school buildings.
The latest implementation agenda now postpones establishment of the department until the fourth quarter of 2030.
TWO's annual reports show that Dutch funding for the project totaled €533,000. In 2024, €224,000 was allocated to establishing the Real Estate Department, while another €85,000 was spent on a Gateway Review. In 2025, TWO provided another €224,000 for the department.
Despite those expenditures, the planned organization was never established.
The Ministry of Traffic, Transport and Urban Planning (VVRP) appointed a project manager in 2023 to prepare the new organization. Together with the Netherlands' Central Government Real Estate Agency, an analysis of the existing structure, an organizational plan and a revised Plan of Approach were prepared.
The parties reached agreement on the plan in September 2024.
However, following a Gateway Review on September 20, 2024, work on the project appears to have come to a complete standstill, according to an evaluation by the Dutch government real estate agency.
The advisers who had previously worked on the project were not given follow-up assignments, and the evaluators said they were unaware whether important positions within the proposed department had been filled.
Nevertheless, funding continued.
TWO's 2025 annual report shows that another €224,000 was paid that year for establishment of the department.
Earlier this year, the project appeared to regain momentum.
A February implementation report said authorities had selected an alternative model for government real estate management. Strategy and overall direction would be centralized, while elements of the actual property-management process could be carried out on a decentralized basis.
A project leader was expected to modify the existing Plan of Approach to reflect that model.
Three months later, however, the attempt had failed.
The implementation agenda sent to the Dutch House of Representatives on May 27 states that the ministries involved were unable to reach agreement within the established timeframe on how the new real estate organization should be structured.
As a result, TWO decided to terminate both its financing and cooperation on this part of the reform program.
Public reports do not identify which ministries were unable to reach agreement or explain the precise nature of the disagreement.
Earlier discussions about government accommodation involved at least the ministries of Administration, Planning and Services (BPD), Finance, VVRP and Economic Development (MEO).
The latest developments leave several significant questions unanswered, including what tangible results were produced with the €533,000 already spent, who will finance and execute the project between now and 2030, and why the alternative model announced earlier this year failed to produce an agreement.
The project has not disappeared from the government's plans. But with TWO withdrawing its financial support and the target now shifted to the fourth quarter of 2030, Curaçao will have to determine how the long-delayed real estate organization will finally be established.