On 19 January 1836 the "Raffinerie nationale de sucre indigène et exotique" (National Indigenous and Exotic Sugar Refinery) company was set up in Brussels. Its founders belonged to a group of Brussels bankers, amongst whom the main shareholder was the Société Générale.
The aim of this new company, whose capital of BEF 4 million was one of the largest in Belgium, was to refine indigenous and exotic sugar, and cultivate sugar beet for sugar production.

In 1836, 500 workers started on the construction of the Refinery (la Sucrerie). Work lasted for a year. Twenty-nine hectares of land were cleared of trees to allow cultivation of the sugar beet. The failure of the business was rapid. History would show that the business would never work.

In fact, the sugar industry in Belgium was barely in its infancy (the continental blockade was in 1806) and, in addition, it became apparent that there wasn't enough water. In 1838 the financial difficulties became clear and the building was mortgaged in 1840.

In 1851 la Sucrerie was taken over by a Monsieur Capouillet (Mayor of Waterloo from 1861 to 1873) and became the only sugar manufacturer in the area. Monsieur Capouillet was no luckier than his predecessors. He also had to admit failure: the geographic isolation stopped any expansion of the business, which closed its doors in 1871... which was a pity as the Brussels Waterloo railway was opened in 1874.

From 1871 to 1907, la Sucrerie became a condensed milk factory, with around 150 employees.

In 1908, a Monsieur De Meeûs acquired the building and split it into two farms which he rented out.

In 1929 la Sucrerie, that majestic industrial edifice, was used for breeding astrakhans in a venture attempted by a Monsieur Gobé.

La Sucrerie was still to be used for equally diverse businesses.

In 1948, it became the headquarters of a demolition company.

In 1951, the Charles Deleukeleire Cinema Productions company used it as a film studio for movie-making.

In 1963, RTB (Radio Television Belgium) used la Sucrerie to record a variety of broadcasts.

In 1970, after this artistic interlude, la Sucrerie was taken over by Monsieur Eugène Smits, a Waterloo entrepreneur. Negotiations between the commune and Monsieur Smits began in 1972. In 1978 the Ministry for the French Community agreed to subsidise the commune's purchase of the building, with the intention of using the site of la Sucrerie as a cultural and leisure centre. In 1979, the local council agreed to the acquisition.

On 24 March 1980, the building was bought by the commune. An office was designated for a pre-project renovation study, definitively approved by the local council in 1982, which the Ministry for the French Community agreed to subsidise up to 60%.

From 1983 to 1989, restored to its former glory, la Sucrerie accommodated various local associations.

In 1989, it was taken over by the holding company of the Louis de Waele group. Won over by the site of la Sucrerie, a vestige of the industrial past of Wallonia, and by the harmony of its spaces, estate agent Louis de Waele envisaged a new dynamism for it, creating a business and leisure centre which included the Martin’s Grand Hotel and its restaurant-brasserie "La Sucrerie", both of which now belong to the Martin's Hotels group, which owns the Château du Lac in Genval.