>Weird, I was just watching this show on cable this weekend about the >rebuilding of Potzdammer Platz and was telling my wife that the club was >slated to be sold or shut down some time soon and then made a comment that >we should visit before it does. >Haven't the "authorities" been trying to close Tresor for some time now >because it sits on property that has seen a *huge* increase in value? >Seems like they finally got their excuse. > >MEK
Partly true Michael, but not the whole story. A big problem with the land at Potzdammer is that it simply has seen no substantial maintenance since before WWII! Remember, Tresor is the vault of a 1930s department store. The land is contaminated, has antiquated utility services like sewerage, electricity etc (when I was there in Nov 2001, there was a massive stagnant mass of water near the Tresor club which I was told was quite normal, yeuch!) not to mention being constructed with the use of some outmoded materials like asbestos, to name one. So you see, whilst the government has wanted to get hold of all the land at Potzdammer and many other places in the East for most of the last decade, the motivations are partly to regenerate the embarrassing shabbiness of the capital city of a G7 country, and yes, partly to flog it off to some fat cigar smoking bloke (stereotype alert!). The point is, in this case, my feeling is, that without public (read govt) input, bringing the conditions of the Tresor up to scratch would be impossible. Note: there's every chance of Tresor re-opening (after some years of temporary residence) in the original locale, after the devt work is done - the public works proposals have some provision (read funding) for community and leisure facilities. Ken
