5 May opening for Brussels art and culture hub Kanal

Brussels' new cultural hub and contemporary art museum, Kanal, will open its doors for the first time this Saturday.

But the City of Brussels says it has yet to receive a single planning permission request for the major renovation of the former Citroën Yser garage site under the new name Kanal-Centre Pompidou, which is due to be completed in late 2022.

Kanal's opening on 5 May launches a pre-figurative year of events ahead of actual construction work beginning in mid-2019. The centre will be open to the public throughout the renovation.

Geoffroy Coomans, the Brussels city councillor for urban planning, said: "We're happy to see this project arrive in Brussels, but we invite those involved to become compliant as soon as possible to avoid future problems."

Museum director Yves Goldstein told BX1 that progress is being made and all the necessary requests have been filed. General manager André Verstraeten said the centre had been concentrating on getting approval from the fire brigade to open on time.