Level27 is growing and relocating (again)

What, again?

Time flies when you're having fun, as the saying goes. Indeed, time flies... It seems like only yesterday that we moved into our beautiful office on Kunstlaan in Hasselt. More than 400 square meters—that should keep us going for a while, right?

Indeed: just a moment. After a little over two years, we have to conclude that it is time for a change.

Over the past year, we have worked extremely hard to propel Level27 to the very top. With two partners, a professional management team, and, above all, our employees, we are ready to continue the unstoppable growth of recent years. Of course, this strategy also means that the number of employees will grow.

A scientific study and a conclusion

Peter recently attended a keynote speech by Jo Peters (Upspace) with the original title "How fish drown." Although he is always skeptical of such original titles, he found the content very appealing. Upspace has developed an approach to create a vision for our current and future office environment. Emmanuelle led the process, which provided us with many valuable insights.

An important insight was that we are already doing well—and if that's the case, we should be proud of it, right? At the time, we designed our office to be beautiful and smart, with plenty of space, greenery, and relaxation options. Because we firmly believe that a pleasant working environment is essential for healthy and happy employees. Literally everyone who visits us immediately feels the pleasant Level27 atmosphere. Check it out for yourself:

Another insight is that we constantly disturb each other. After all, everyone is different: some people need more focus, while others constantly need interaction. And that also varies depending on the role and activity you are performing. The Upspace study immediately made it clear that we need to separate some activities from each other and organize ourselves differently in the future. Emmanuelle also calculated what future growth in employees means for the space you need.

The conclusion was clear: we need more space. Much more.

A second, less scientific conclusion

We have always enjoyed working in the city center. In Bilzen, we were right in the heart of the city, and Kunstlaan is also just a stone's throw away from the beautiful center of Hasselt.

However, in our current environment, it is a battle: there is a daily struggle for that one scarce parking space. We are aware that we must focus on sustainable mobility, and we are doing so. We applaud bicycle commuters and support them with all possible means, but that does not completely solve the problem. There is also another problem: we have been ordering only electric vehicles for some time now, but these need to be charged, and Fluvius tells us that there is not enough power in the city center.

This brings us to the second conclusion, which does not require too much science or research: there is no place in the city center for an SME with 50 future employees.

So, back to searching!

Less than three years after our previous search, we were looking again. This time for an office that was at least three times as big. People thought we were crazy. “You're not going to move to an even bigger place, surely everyone can work perfectly well from home.” “Come on, that's so outdated, don't you do remote work?” “Building an office now? In these uncertain times? With interest rates so high?”

Well, valid points, of course, but we're going ahead with it anyway! Because we already work from home, which is ideal for focused work (if you have the opportunity to do so at home). But this does not detract from our conviction that we can only build a team with people who also meet each other physically. So sorry, 100% remote work is not an option at Level27. What we do offer is a healthy balance between working from home and meeting each other in a pleasant and inspiring workplace.

The challenging search led us past all kinds of possibilities. Old and new, building and renting.

And those who seek shall find... an iconic building that deserves a future:

That's right, Level27 is moving into Via Media in Hasselt! We are going to give the TV Limburg building a major update (read: completely renovate it). It will be an inspiring meeting place for our employees, customers, and partners. The first steps have already been taken: Sofie van Deusjevoo has drawn up a floor plan based on the earlier Upspace study. Now it's time to start the construction project so that we can move in on January 1, 2024!

Okay, the building is five times larger than the current one. So there is plenty of space to do business and continue to grow. We are already excited about it!