Hala Targowa: leasing off the beaten track

Hala Targowa in Gdańsk opened with an exceptional tenant mix. Behind it lie many months of intensive work by the Apsys Polska team, for whom the real challenge was to match the offer to the unique character of the place.

The process of leasing space in Hala Targowa followed its own rules from the very beginning. In addition to the standard vetting of potential tenants typical of commercial space, exceptional flexibility and creativity were also needed here. Tenants were expected not only to be willing to cooperate, but also to be open to the project’s unusual conditions – both the opportunities it creates and the constraints it entails. Working out the best solutions took a great deal of time, discussion and understanding of each other’s expectations.

A rich offer

Ultimately, the Hall’s three levels form three independent but complementary culinary zones with 34 diverse concepts. Each floor has a different character, suited to different needs, styles and ways of spending time. This principle guided the leasing process from day one.

Level -1 continues the Hall’s historic retail function: 10 stalls selling fresh produce during the day and an intimate event space in the evening. It is complemented by the U Rene bar, which, in addition to drinks, serves snacks made from products available from the tenants on this level – a solution unique on the Polish market. The ground floor is the central part of the Hall – seventeen concepts offering cuisines from around the world, served at a street food pace, and two bars. Level +1 has four restaurants with table service – a space for a longer meal, celebrating special occasions or a business meeting.

The Hall’s tenants include both well-known brands and newcomers. The Apsys Polska team deliberately combined recognisable brands with original concepts and local entrepreneurs, giving the place a unique character.

Level +1 is home to Marzyciele – a concept created by Kuba Wojewódzki and Dawid Kwidziński; Alticcio, a restaurant evoking the Italian Dolce Vita of the 1960s, created by the founders of Warsaw’s Sobremesa; and the Polana restaurant, serving Polish cuisine. The same level also features Seafood Station Bistro & Oyster Bar – one of three outlets of the Seafood Station brand, which is present in the Hall on every level.

The street food zone saw the debut of concepts that had not previously been present in the Tricity: Chinese Mango Rice & Noodle, Thai Tuk Tuk, Vietnamese Vietlabb, Greek Pitagoras and Mexican El Patron. Equally important in the leasing process was finding space for local brands – such as the UMAM patisserie and Wiśniewski traditional fruit liqueurs.

– “At Apsys, we saw the Hall’s potential from day one. The fact that it opened with such an exceptional set of tenants, sometimes coming from completely different but complementary worlds, is the best confirmation for us that we were right. I am delighted that so many companies believed in this project and want to continue developing it with us,” says Wojciech Wiązek from the Apsys Polska leasing department.

Non-standard solutions

At the leasing stage, the Apsys leasing team looked for partners who understood and believed in the uniqueness of the project, but who were also ready to establish themselves in a historic space that demands a completely different way of working – without large kitchen back-of-house areas, using pre-prepared ingredients and at a high intensity of operation. Tenants use shared technical infrastructure on level -1: a freezer room, a cold room and separate rooms for preparing meal components (known as prep rooms). A different challenge awaited the restaurants on level +1, where heritage conservation requirements did not allow enclosed structures, so all the units on this level operate with open kitchens. These architectural constraints became part of the tenant selection criteria. Tenants not only had to accept the non-standard format, but also feel at home in it in order to work this way every day. Despite this, the tenant mix was completed before the opening.

“What sets the Hall’s tenant mix apart is the unique combination of signature restaurants, street food concepts and a traditional retail section in a single, coherently designed space. Tenants are aware of the challenges posed by the architectural constraints, but they know that the renovated Hall is not only an investment in the building itself, but above all in the identity of the place,” says Magdalena Grzyb from the Apsys Polska leasing department.

As the Apsys team emphasises, cooperation with tenants does not end with the signing of the agreement. The investor supports its partners at every stage, from adapting their concepts to the specifics of the Hall to day-to-day operations, marketing and cultural events.

New life for the historic Hall

After eighteen months of work, the historic Hala Targowa in Gdańsk reopened on 12 August. Why Apsys chose to focus on food, how to reconcile the industry’s modern requirements with heritage protection and what surprised the team most during the works – explains Katarzyna Kopszak-Dziurnikowska, Head of Development at Apsys Polska.

Where did the idea come from at Apsys to buy Hala Targowa in Gdańsk and create a new food destination there?

We had known Hala Targowa for some time and knew that it was a place with huge, dormant potential. It is an exceptional building with more than a century of history of trade and meeting people, located in the very heart of Gdańsk’s Main Town. For three decades, Apsys has chosen precisely such exceptional places for its investments – places with history, a strong identity and significance for their cities – and we give them new life. That is our hallmark.

From the outset, we knew that we wanted to base the future of Hala Targowa on food – the function that best fits both the history of the place and the contemporary needs of the city. This direction became the foundation of the entire regeneration concept. Of course, history alone is not enough to make an investment decision of this kind. Before deciding to buy, we analysed the potential of the location very thoroughly. Research confirmed that the Hall is exceptional in terms of the diversity of its user groups. The building is located at the very centre of Gdańsk’s tourist traffic, and at the same time in the immediate vicinity of workplaces, homes and public institutions. Forecasts indicate that the proportions of tourist visitors and Tricity residents are very similar. It was this diversity of users that convinced us that the Hall has the potential to operate all year round, not just during the tourist season.

Why did you decide on food specifically? Was it a natural choice given the history of the place and its location?

Absolutely. We decided to go back to the roots. We wanted to give the Hall back to the city and its residents, restoring the function that Gdańsk residents have known for generations. Ever since it was built in 1896, it has been a place where trade, food and everyday encounters naturally intertwined. Our “All around food” idea is a continuation of this identity, but in a new form that reflects contemporary times and consumer expectations. At the same time, it was a very deliberate business choice. Poles are increasingly going out to spend time with family and friends over a shared meal. In 2025, as many as 80% of us went to a restaurant at least once – four times more than 30 years ago. That is why we created a place where food is the starting point, but not the only reason to visit. Across the Hall’s three levels, we have created an offer comprising as many as 34 food and retail concepts – from everyday grocery shopping, through street food, to restaurants and bars. The rich culinary offer is complemented by numerous cultural and entertainment events. We wanted the Hall to be a lively place and for our guests to treat it as a place to spend time together, build relationships and enjoy new experiences – hence the many elements not previously seen in places of this kind. We want it to become part of the rhythm of the city and to give both residents and visitors to Gdańsk reasons to come back regularly.

The Hall is meant to serve both Gdańsk residents and tourists visiting the Main Town – did this influence the concept of the place?

Creating places that make people’s lives better has always been Apsys’s goal, whether we are talking about shopping centres, residential projects or destinations such as Hala Targowa.

In the case of the Hall, we knew from the start that its success would depend on skilfully combining the needs of different user groups. We designed the Hall not for a single audience, but for different ways of using the place. For residents, the Hall is a place for everyday shopping, lunch, meeting friends or family occasions. For people working in the city centre, it is a natural meeting place during the day. And for tourists, it is an authentic place that allows them to get to know Gdańsk not only through its monuments, but also through the city’s local flavours, culture and atmosphere.

This approach is reflected not only in the food and retail offer, but also in the way we design the guest experience. From the beginning, we wanted the Hall to be a lively and interesting place. That is why we have prepared a rich programme of cultural and entertainment events. It is complemented by solutions that build the customer experience, such as Ha!apka, an innovative food ordering app, a gift vending machine, an interactive educational panel telling the rich history of the place and multimedia projection mapping shows.

We want the Hall to be alive all day and all year round, giving different audiences their own reasons to come back regularly.

What were the biggest challenges in adapting a historic, heritage-protected building to a contemporary food-service function?

From the very beginning, the project was developed in close cooperation with the city and the conservator of monuments. Our goal was to adapt the Hall to contemporary operating standards while preserving its historic character. The biggest challenge was finding a balance between protecting the building’s historic fabric and the requirements of a contemporary food destination. On the one hand, we had a 130-year-old building of enormous historic value; on the other, a place that must meet very stringent technical, sanitary and fire safety requirements. Every solution required an individual approach, extensive analysis and close cooperation with many partners, including the conservator. In a project like this, there are no ready-made templates. Adapting the building meant a complete modernisation of its technical infrastructure. We had to design and route new installations in a way that would ensure full functionality for all tenants while showing the utmost respect for the historic fabric. The building has been equipped with a modern heating and cooling system based on 86 heat pumps located beneath Plac Dominikański, ventilation with heat recovery and an advanced BMS. The shared areas also include infrastructure supporting tenants’ operations, including a professional dishwashing room, a freezer room, a room for the initial preparation of meals – the so-called “prep room” – and staff facilities.

Paradoxically, what gives us the greatest satisfaction today is that visitors hardly notice this enormous technical work. What they see above all is the beauty of the historic Hall and its architecture. And that was exactly the point – for all the modern infrastructure to stay in the background, enabling the historic building to operate to the highest contemporary standards.

Was there a moment in this process that particularly surprised you – for example, related to what you discovered beneath the layers of earlier renovations?

Definitely. There were many such moments. The deeper we went into each stage of the work, the more often we discovered elements of the Hall’s original decor that had remained hidden for decades. Ornaments, architectural details and historic decorations gradually regained their former appearance.

But perhaps the most moving thing for me was the response and commitment of our partners – the tenants. They believed in this project from the start and today, together with us, they are writing a new chapter in the history of Hala Targowa. Time and again I heard them speak with great conviction about their belief in this project, about how much they wanted to be part of this place and how much they appreciated the scale of the work put into bringing the Hall back to life. This gave us enormous motivation and strengthened our conviction that we are creating something that has the chance to become an important place on the map of Gdańsk and beyond.

Value hidden in the detail

The regeneration of Hala Targowa was a precise and comprehensive process aimed at preparing the historic building for contemporary food-service functions, while preserving and showcasing its unique character and most valuable architectural features.

Apsys, which specialises in regeneration and city-shaping projects, approached the transformation of Hala Targowa in Gdańsk with reverence and attention to detail, seeking to recreate the building’s authentic character and restore its original sense of space while adapting it to contemporary food-service functions.

“We began work on the Hala Targowa regeneration project with a historical analysis, which allowed us to better understand the building’s individual layers. We then began working with the conservator of monuments so that we knew exactly which elements and moments in the Hall’s history were key and should be highlighted through the architecture. In the 19th century, when the Hall was built, it was a very modern building and a centre of social life. Over time, it lost that role, and our task was to restore it in a modern form,” says Mariia Shapoval of the Boris Kudlička with Partners studio.

The steel structure of the 19th-century hall was entirely sandblasted and protected against corrosion without interfering with its structure. The historic retail kiosks were recreated in their original locations, the brick pillars – hidden for years beneath successive layers of plaster and mortar – were exposed, and original fragments of the floor were incorporated into the new flooring on level +1.

It was equally important to showcase even older traces of history. On level -1, the relics of a 12th-century Romanesque church and a 14th-century lime kiln have been given a new, more striking setting. The history of the site is also brought closer through a museum exhibition of food-related artefacts and an interactive educational and historical panel that presents the history of this part of Gdańsk in a modern way.

The Hall is a space where every detail tells its own story. Alongside carefully recreated elements of the original fittings, there are also new ones, designed specifically for this place and inspired by the character of the Hall and of Gdańsk. The stall counters on the ground floor have been clad with handmade and hand-painted tiles inspired by historic Gdańsk flizy. The handmade tabletops were made from recycled materials, and iconic Polish chair models from the 1960s and 1970s were given a second life thanks to renovation by Retrospekcja. Level +1 features “SPLOT” (“Weave”), a wall installation designed by Natalia Marcinak, a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. Inspired by fishing nets, wicker weaves and the port character of the city, it symbolically connects the Hall’s history with the present and highlights its role as a meeting place.

The regeneration also included reorganising the building’s functional layout. Removing later stalls and the lift from the centre of the Hall made it possible to reveal the historic volume once again and open up sightlines. Level +1 was extended with the restaurant function in mind, the stairs leading to level -1 were widened, and new lifts and circulation routes were added to make moving around the building more comfortable.

Alongside the changes inside the Hall, extensive work was carried out on the exterior. The façade was cleaned and restored, including its pinnacles and historic architectural details. The entrance gates were also renovated.

“The regeneration of Hala Targowa was not about recreating the past, but about finding a balance between history and the present. Every design decision was the result of a dialogue between conservation requirements, the needs of future tenants and the expectations of visitors. Thanks to Apsys’s experience in regenerating historic buildings, we were able to develop solutions that preserve the authenticity of the place while preparing it for the decades of use to come,” emphasises Jan Oko, Project Manager at Apsys Polska.

The interior design was created by the Boris Kudlička with Partners studio, known for, among others, the interiors of the Raffles Europejski Hotel and the New Orangery of the Belvedere restaurant in the Royal Łazienki Park in Warsaw, as well as numerous cultural spaces in Poland and abroad. The general contractor is FineTech Construction, whose work includes historic buildings.

Boxes + photos

Tiles with a Gdańsk pedigree

The more than 700 tiles used to finish the stall counters on level 0 were made by hand using traditional methods. Their designs refer to Gdańsk flizy – the distinctive tiles that for centuries adorned the interiors of townhouses in the Main Town and almost entirely disappeared during the Second World War. It is a detail that gives the new counters in Hala Targowa a handcrafted, one-of-a-kind character and places them within the local ceramic tradition. The tiles were made at Manufaktura Pałac Nakomiady.

Tabletops with a second life

The handmade tabletops in Hala Targowa were made partly from materials recovered during the building’s regeneration and partly from other recycled materials. Fragments of amber have also been embedded in their structure – a symbolic reference to the history and identity of Pomerania. They combine the idea of reusing materials with local craftsmanship and design. Each tabletop is unique; no two are identical. The tabletops were made by Migaloo Home, a company from Kashubia.