On 23 April 1999, it was announced that the winning team was the consortium from the United Kingdom of the Richard Rogers Partnership and Ove Arup & Partners, and VK Studio from Belgium. Richard Rogers and Arup were the same teams responsible for designing the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the Lloyd's building in London and the European Court of Human Rights building in Strasbourg. On 3 March 2000 the contract was signed between each of the parties so that detailed designs could be drawn up. On 21 September 2000, the Buildings Agency concluded a Promotion Agreement with Justinvest Antwerp, which was an association between Interbuild, KBC and Dexia. They then became responsible for providing alternative financing, project management, and project coordination during the construction phase. The site, which was owned by the Belgian state, was made available to Justinvest under a long-term lease.
