In the seaside heart of Gdynia, in the historic location of the South Pier and by the yacht harbour, Ghelamco, together with the Polish Sailing Association, will build a multifunctional building to house the headquarters of Polish sailing. The Nova Marina Gdynia investment will be the culmination of the company’s long-standing cooperation with the Polish Yachting Association and the associated Gdynia clubs, thanks to which the city will gain a valuable facility with a rich infrastructure for sailors, in keeping with its modernist tradition.
In the middle of summer, during Poland’s biggest celebration of sailors – the annual Gdynia Sailing Days – the Polish Sailing Association and Ghelamco presented a joint project to change the face of a representative part of Gdynia and the cradle of Polish sailing. The new headquarters of Polish sailing will be built at the Southern Pier, surrounded by water and the city’s biggest icons, including the historic sailing ship “Dar Pomorza” and the Maritime University. The five-storey facility, with a usable area of approximately 20,000 square metres, will house, among other things, the headquarters of Gdynia’s clubs and the Polish Sailing Association (PZŻ), enriched with an extensive infrastructure for sailors, including premises overlooking the harbour and marina, meeting the needs of sailing events organised in Gdynia. The facility will be equipped with, among other things, hangars for storing yachts, as well as an underground garage.
“Gdynia is a city where you can feel the idea of its creators, the modernist architects and urban planners, at every step – their optimistic belief in tomorrow, their fascination with modernity, clarity of form and functionality. But you can also sense their love of light, space, sea and greenery. Our project draws on these values and fits seamlessly into the context of the South Pier, alluding to the iconic buildings of 1930s Gdynia. It is a contemporary continuation of the ideas and ambitions of its pioneers, crowning one of the key parts of the seaside skyline. The building’s architecture is the result of a long collaboration with the city’s authorities and the municipal conservator of monuments, thanks to which we have jointly developed a thoroughly Gdynia-based design that we hope will become the centre of Polish sailing. I believe that the people of Gdynia will welcome Nova Marina with openness and that its silhouette will become a permanent part of the city’s landscape,” says Jarosław Zagórski, Managing Director of Ghelamco Poland.
Thanks to favourable natural conditions and good winds, this part of Gdynia’s coastline has become a space dedicated to sailing culture – world-class sporting events, regattas and sailing ship rallies are held here. The area, managed by the Polish Sailing Association, is the base for clubs that educate the next generation of sailors. The Gdynia marina is their home port and provides them with an opportunity to develop in a new dimension.
“This place with a rich past has been expecting a project of stature for Polish sailing for years. Nova Marina Gdynia will be a worthy showcase for Polish sailing and the home of, among others, Gdynia’s sailing clubs, it will provide infrastructure and areas for local and international activities. It will become a new showcase of the city, Polish yachting and a wonderful haven for all those who have the wind and the sea in their hearts,” assures Dr Tomasz Chamera, President of the Polish Yachting Association.
“Thanks to the cooperation with Ghelamco, we finally have a chance to build a real facility that will respond to the needs of sailors and allow us to even more effectively fulfil the statutory objectives of our organisation,” – he adds.
The planned investment is located in a place characterised by both tangible heritage, represented by the main axis of the urban layout of the historic Downtown Gdynia, passing into the South Pier, and intangible heritage, related to the sailing culture in this area of the city. The proposed facility is located directly next to the Gen. Mariusz Zaruski Sailing Basin and is intended to help develop the activities of existing sailing clubs and schools and continue the development of the sport on a global scale. The Nova Marina Gdynia project was selected through a closed competition for the architectural concept, to which 5 renowned Polish studios were invited: APA Wojciechowski, Arch-Deco, BBGK Architekci, PIG Architekci and ROARK Studio. The jury included architects and representatives of the City of Gdynia, the Polish Sailing Association and Ghelamco. The winning concept was that of PIG Architekci.
The start of construction work on the Nova Marina Gdynia facility is scheduled for the turn of 2024 and 2025. The building is scheduled for completion in 2027. Nova Marina Gdynia is a project being developed in a joint venture model by Ghelamco Poland and the Polish Sailing Association.
Source: Ghelamco
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