In Gdańsk, renovation work is under way on the building that once housed the iconic club “Rudy Kot”. Work is due to be completed in November 2023, with the opening of a new club called “Kot” planned for spring 2024. The tenement building on Garncarska Street will have four storeys, including two cinema halls, a dining space and a club-music venue. The work is being carried out by Correcto, a company from Koszalin, commissioned by Międzynarodowe Targi Gdańskie AmberExpo, which has managed the municipal property since mid-2020. The site visit was attended by a delegation from the city, AmberExpo management, and the future club operators, Ewa and Arkadiusz Hronowski of the Sopocka Odessa company.
The new club will consist of a studio cinema with seating for 120 people, a small basement hall, a restaurant section, a café space, and a large multicultural club hall. Sopocka Odessa, which won the competition to operate the property on Garncarska Street by signing a 15-year lease, will invest in the club.
The company run by Ewa and Arkadiusz Hronowski has operated the SPATIF Creative Circles Club in Sopot since 2000, and in 2013 opened the largest concert club in Pomerania, B90. Sopocka Odessa is also the owner of the Drizzly Grizzly club neighbouring B90, and a shareholder in Square, a company operating other clubs and cultural spaces in the Tricity.
– After the renovation, this entire four-storey building, along with the basement, will take on a new function, with a studio cinema seating 120 people as its main focus. We plan to hold not only film screenings there, but also meetings with creators and artists. In addition, there will be a small basement hall for up to 20 people, with a more alternative character. On the ground floor there will be a bistro-style restaurant section offering street food. The building will also include a café space. On the top floor, meanwhile, a large club-style, multicultural hall will be created for leisure time. It will host, for example, intimate music concerts of an original, author-driven character – said Arkadiusz Hronowski.
Andrzej Bojanowski, President of Międzynarodowe Targi Gdańskie AmberExpo, reported that the initial arrangements with the future operator of the venue had been changed, so that MTG will bring the building to a developer-finish state, with the future club operator taking care of the rest.
– We will still incur expenses related to the fitting-out and adaptation of the premises, including cinema equipment, but in return the club operator will pay a higher monthly rent – explains Andrzej Bojanowski.
The cost of the investment in the property on Garncarska Street will be around PLN 8-9 million.