diff --git a/ic_plugin_coordinates/pom.xml b/ic_plugin_coordinates/pom.xml
index 29579c3..650a271 100644
--- a/ic_plugin_coordinates/pom.xml
+++ b/ic_plugin_coordinates/pom.xml
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
     <groupId>nl.interestingcorner.coordinates</groupId>
     <artifactId>ic_plugin_coordinates</artifactId>
     <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
     <name>ic_plugin_coordinates</name>
     <!-- FIXME change it to the project's website -->
@@ -30,6 +31,12 @@
                 <type>pom</type>
                 <scope>import</scope>
             </dependency>
+            <dependency>
+                <groupId>nl.interestingcorner.core</groupId>
+                <artifactId>ic_plugin_core</artifactId>
+                <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+                <scope>provided</scope>
+            </dependency>
         </dependencies>
     </dependencyManagement>
 
diff --git a/ic_plugin_coordinates/src/main/java/nl/interestingcorner/coordinates/db/DatabaseManager.java b/ic_plugin_coordinates/src/main/java/nl/interestingcorner/coordinates/db/DatabaseManager.java
index d4784ce..13132c4 100644
--- a/ic_plugin_coordinates/src/main/java/nl/interestingcorner/coordinates/db/DatabaseManager.java
+++ b/ic_plugin_coordinates/src/main/java/nl/interestingcorner/coordinates/db/DatabaseManager.java
@@ -1,9 +1,6 @@
 package nl.interestingcorner.coordinates.db;
 
 import java.io.File;
-import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
-import java.io.FileReader;
-import java.io.IOException;
 import java.sql.Connection;
 import java.sql.DriverManager;
 import java.sql.PreparedStatement;
@@ -11,9 +8,9 @@ import java.sql.ResultSet;
 import java.sql.SQLException;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.List;
-import java.util.Properties;
 import java.util.logging.Level;
-import java.util.logging.Logger;
+
+import nl.interestingcorner.core.db.*;
 
 import org.bukkit.plugin.java.JavaPlugin;
 
diff --git a/ic_plugin_coordinates/src/main/resources/plugin.yml b/ic_plugin_coordinates/src/main/resources/plugin.yml
index a6cb5f3..a3146ca 100644
--- a/ic_plugin_coordinates/src/main/resources/plugin.yml
+++ b/ic_plugin_coordinates/src/main/resources/plugin.yml
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ main: nl.interestingcorner.coordinates.App
 name: IC-coords
 version: 0.1
 api-version: 1.21
+depend: [IC-core]
 
 commands:
    ic-coords:
diff --git a/ic_plugin_core/pom.xml b/ic_plugin_core/pom.xml
index a14bf82..57b70b8 100644
--- a/ic_plugin_core/pom.xml
+++ b/ic_plugin_core/pom.xml
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
     <groupId>nl.interestingcorner.core</groupId>
     <artifactId>ic_plugin_core</artifactId>
     <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
     <name>ic_plugin_core</name>
     <!-- FIXME change it to the project's website -->
diff --git a/ic_plugin_core/settings.xml b/ic_plugin_core/settings.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1e175f7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ic_plugin_core/settings.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+<settings xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.1.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.1.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/settings-1.1.0.xsd">
+  <profiles>
+    <profile>
+      <id>default</id>
+      <properties>
+        <db.username>spigot</db.username>
+        <db.password>Z7nhqy+spigot-minecraft</db.password>
+        <db.name>ic_minecraft</db.name>
+        <db.host>localhost</db.host>
+      </properties>
+    </profile>
+  </profiles>
+</settings>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/ic_plugin_core/src/main/java/nl/interestingcorner/core/App.java b/ic_plugin_core/src/main/java/nl/interestingcorner/core/App.java
index 43ef657..1def67b 100644
--- a/ic_plugin_core/src/main/java/nl/interestingcorner/core/App.java
+++ b/ic_plugin_core/src/main/java/nl/interestingcorner/core/App.java
@@ -2,16 +2,21 @@ package nl.interestingcorner.core;
 
 import org.bukkit.plugin.java.JavaPlugin;
 
+import nl.interestingcorner.core.db.DatabaseManager;
+
 /**
- * Hello world!
+ * Core plugin class for the Interesting Corner plugin
  */
-public class App {
+public class App extends JavaPlugin {
     @Override
     public void onEnable() {
-        getLogger().info("Hello, SpigotMC!");
+        DatabaseManager.INSTANCE.initialize(this);
+        getLogger().info("Core plugin loaded!");
     }
+
     @Override
     public void onDisable() {
-        getLogger().info("See you again, SpigotMC!");
+        DatabaseManager.INSTANCE.close();
+        getLogger().info("Core plugin exited!");
     }
 }
diff --git a/ic_plugin_core/src/main/java/nl/interestingcorner/core/db/DatabaseInitializeListener.java b/ic_plugin_core/src/main/java/nl/interestingcorner/core/db/DatabaseInitializeListener.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d6bcdfd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ic_plugin_core/src/main/java/nl/interestingcorner/core/db/DatabaseInitializeListener.java
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+package nl.interestingcorner.core.db;
+
+import java.sql.Connection;
+
+public interface DatabaseInitializeListener {
+    /**
+     * Gets called when the databse has been setup and tables can be initialized.
+     * @param connection the connection to the database
+     */
+    void initializeDatabaseTables(Connection connection);
+}
diff --git a/ic_plugin_core/src/main/java/nl/interestingcorner/core/db/DatabaseManager.java b/ic_plugin_core/src/main/java/nl/interestingcorner/core/db/DatabaseManager.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..76ce6c8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ic_plugin_core/src/main/java/nl/interestingcorner/core/db/DatabaseManager.java
@@ -0,0 +1,117 @@
+package nl.interestingcorner.core.db;
+
+import java.io.File;
+import java.sql.Connection;
+import java.sql.DriverManager;
+import java.sql.SQLException;
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.logging.Level;
+
+import org.bukkit.plugin.java.JavaPlugin;
+
+public enum DatabaseManager {
+    INSTANCE;
+
+    private Connection connection;
+    private JavaPlugin app;
+    private boolean initialized = false;
+    private final List<DatabaseInitializeListener> databaseInitializeListeners = new ArrayList<>();
+
+    /**
+     * Initializes the database. Creates the file and sets up the db structure.
+     *
+     * @param app the app to use for logging
+     * @return true if the database was initialized successfully. False if not.
+     */
+    public boolean initialize(JavaPlugin app) {
+        if (this.initialized) {
+            return true;
+        }
+        
+        this.app = app;
+
+        if (!setupDatabase()) {
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        initializeTables();
+        return true;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Closes the connectino to the database
+     *
+     * @return true if the connection closed succesfully, false if not.
+     */
+    public boolean close() {
+        try {
+            if (this.connection != null && !this.connection.isClosed()) {
+                this.connection.close();
+                this.initialized = false;
+            }
+        } catch (SQLException ex) {
+            this.app.getLogger().log(Level.SEVERE, "Error while closing the databse connection: {0}", ex.getMessage());
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        return true;
+    }
+
+    public void registerDatabaseInitializeListener(DatabaseInitializeListener listener) {
+        this.databaseInitializeListeners.add(listener);
+
+        // immediately initialize if the database is already initialized
+        if (this.initialized) {
+            try {
+                listener.initializeDatabaseTables(this.connection);
+            } catch (Exception e) {
+                this.app.getLogger().log(Level.SEVERE, "Could not initialize database tables: {0}", e.getMessage());
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Sets up the connectino to the database. Creates a new .db file if it
+     * doesn't exist yet.
+     *
+     * @return true if the connection was set up successfully. False if not.
+     */
+    private boolean setupDatabase() {
+        if (!this.app.getDataFolder().exists()) {
+            if (!this.app.getDataFolder().mkdirs()) {
+                app.getLogger().severe("Could not create data folder");
+                return false;
+            }
+        }
+
+        File dbFile = new File(app.getDataFolder(), "database.db");
+        String url = "jdbc:sqlite:" + dbFile.getAbsolutePath();
+
+        try {
+            this.connection = DriverManager.getConnection(url);
+        } catch (SQLException e) {
+            this.app.getLogger().log(Level.SEVERE, "Could not connect to database file {0}: {1}",
+                    new Object[] { dbFile, e.getMessage() });
+        }
+
+        this.app.getLogger().log(Level.INFO, "Connected to SQLite database: {0}", dbFile.getName());
+        this.initialized = true;
+
+        return true;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * initializes the tables for the database.
+     */
+    private void initializeTables() {
+        for (DatabaseInitializeListener listener : this.databaseInitializeListeners) {
+            try {
+                listener.initializeDatabaseTables(this.connection);
+            } catch (Exception e) {
+                this.app.getLogger().log(Level.SEVERE, "Could not initialize database tables: {0}", e.getMessage());
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+}
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e5823d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+<project>
+  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
+  <groupId>nl.interestingcorner</groupId>
+  <artifactId>ic_plugins</artifactId>
+  <version>1.0.0</version>
+  <packaging>pom</packaging>
+
+  <modules>
+    <module>ic_plugin_core</module>
+    <module>ic_plugin_coordinates</module>
+  </modules>
+</project>
\ No newline at end of file