The Holland Casino on the Gedempte Kattendiep in the center was completely destroyed by a fire in 2017. Not much later, the gambling palace opened the doors of its temporary location on Sontplein and the old building was demolished.
Since then it has been a big gaping hole in the heart of the city. Despite years of promises that a solution would be forthcoming at any moment, nothing happens at all.
According to the spokesman for the town hall, the parties are in constructive talks, but he cannot say much more than that.
Norbert Carpetti, spokesman for the casino, is a bit more enthusiastic: ,,Holland Casino is still in consultation with the municipality of Groningen to find a suitable, definitive location for a new location for the casino. We realize that this process takes a very long time and find that very annoying. However, it is quite complex, involving several parties and both parties each have their own specific wishes.”
Nevertheless, Carpetti says it is working towards a definitive solution. “We expect and hope to be able to provide a definite answer on this in the foreseeable future. We cannot share more about this at the moment.”
A few months
According to Norbert, that foreseeable period is a few months. A solution must also be found for the old location within that time. And that would be about time. It now feels like a decent middle finger to the City to leave such an enormous piece of land in the heart of the city completely untouched in times of housing and building land scarcity.