A British investor, after having splashed out millions on buying the premises, is set to convert it the once handsome building in the city's Prenzlauer Berg district into an elite "Soho House Media Club," complete with 42-seat cinema, swimming pool, roof-top fitness club, bars, restaurants and posh apartments on two floors.
The club will be modeled on highly exclusive establishments found in London's Soho and New York's Manhattan districts, where entrance is restricted to club members and specially invited guests only, and membership costs around 900 euros ($1,224) annually.
The publicity-shy British investor has commissioned the JSK architectural bureau in Berlin to carry out renovations on the downtrodden Berlin building, which remains a listed property and is located near the former communist Palace of the Republic, which is now being demolished.
Department store turned party HQ
The building's history in Prenzlauer Berg dates back to 1928-29 when Jewish business partners Hermann Golluber and Hugo Halle invested their life savings in a department store in Lothringerstrasse, now renamed Torstrasse, where customers could purchase goods on credit.
