Watt The Health core of repurposing project

From May 2025, tech companies from the health and sports sector will be able to find and inspire each other on the four highest floors of the medical center of AZ Maria Middelares in the Ghent borough of Gentbrugge. On an area of 4,600 m², they will not only be able to use their own office space and shared services, on the 24-meter-high rooftop with roof garden they can also enjoy a beautiful panorama of historic Ghent. The shared services add up to 1,500 m² of large and small meeting rooms, lunch and event spaces and terraces. The remaining 1,000 m² per floor are divided into office spaces, from 25 m² to possibly a full floor.

Watt The Health is the first part of 't Verband, an ambitious redevelopment project to transform the entire area into "the healthiest neighborhood in Flanders. At the request of the AZ, project developer Revive wants to green the site in the Oud-Gentbrugge neighborhood and fill it with various projects to strengthen physical and mental health.

The site already includes the Maria Middelares medical center, Ter Hovingen residential care center and De Punt neighborhood health center. In addition to ten separate homes and a building with 39 apartments, Revive, together with various partners, is also building the Health Arena there, a place where people can work on their health preventively, supported by the latest innovations. Revive already demolished a number of old buildings for this purpose and is also constructing an inner area, a 6,500 m² public neighborhood park, an inner garden, underground parking with a roof garden and a publicly accessible lunch bar.

The future business center focuses on tech companies that are suppliers to the healthcare and sports sectors. "This should encourage cross-pollinations between the tech companies and the adjacent healthcare sector," said Julie Daelman, Revive's B2B manager. "Innovations and new technology can then also be translated faster into practice. A company that wants to bring a technical innovation to the market can consult the hospital for this and have the prototype tested there by the intended target group. Flemish tech can thus be quickly tested and marketed. But it also works the other way around. Useful tech can be developed at the request of the various healthcare actors."

Tenants will already be able to count on the knowledge and acceleration program of Imec.istart and the industry-driven Medvia network. Imec.istart will also give start-up healthtech companies the opportunity to reserve a free coworking spot in Watt The Health. "Watt The Health aims to be the regional hotspot for a full healthtech ecosystem in this story," said Imec.istart. Like Revive's other building projects, it aims for an e-level of up to 30 and is betting on solar panels, individual heat pumps and electric charging stations for cars and bikes.

In addition to the business center, the site houses a number of complementary healthcare actors that form a health meta-system among themselves. The Maria Middelares medical center continues to focus on short-term care, consultations, exploring advanced diagnostic and treatment methods, as well as sports medicine and lifestyle medicine. The ground floor of the 900-square-meter Health Arena will house a high-tech sports medical center, with screening, monitoring and coaching. In short: a shift from treatment to prevention and also aftercare.