Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2010 | Page 56

REAL ESTATE SPECIAL REPORT

Take A Number
CLX Business Zone combines logistics,
hi-tech and retail expertise
Tampere Region has been one of the most dynamic areas in Finland for years. Already
the biggest in-land city in Scandinavia, Tampere is now seeking growth from logistics
excellence. For a while now, a new business zone has been developing near the
Tampere-Pirkkala Airport, southwest of the Tampere city centre. The new entity is called
Pirkkala CLX and it is extremely well connected: the hub is served by the airport and
a modern road network which has recently been upgraded. And the railway is there as
well: the main North-South and East-West lines interact here.

E

rkki Korkala, Business Director for the Pirkkala municipality, says that location has
been the strongest asset of CLX
from the beginning.
“In addition, the entire region is growing and developing
with remarkable rate,” Korkala
observes.
The main concept of CLX
is apparent already in the name
of the business zone, but only if
one has at least passing familiarity with Roman numerals. CLX,
of course, translates to 160. And
why 160, you may ask? Well,
Tampere-Pirkkala lies at the
dead centre of a circle that encompasses within its 160 kilometre radius eight of Finland’s
ten largest cities – covering over
60% of the entire population of
the country in the process.
In addition to big population numbers, the CLX sphere of
influence delivers also prosperity – this is the most developed,
the most industrial area in Finland, with the best prospects for
investors also.

Think Big
The genesis of CLX goes back
four years, as the co-operative
agreement on CLX was signed in
September 2005. The area comprises hundreds of hectares primarily owned by the municipality of Pirkkala and Finavia on a
stretch of land lying on the axis between the airport and Tampere. In addition to the municipality of Pirkkala and Finavia,
NCC Property Development and
SRV have also been contributing
to the joint scheme from day one.
54 Nordicum

Korkala remarks that in
the days and months leading
up to the agreement there were
plenty of ideas being thrown
back and forth:
“We had the original vision that we should attempt to
go for something big here.” For
a project of this magnitude, it
made sense to take in two veteran developers instead of just
one. Four years down the road,
all the partners are still very
much committed to the project.
“At present, SRV is involved in a project by the airport and NCC has a 20-hectare
reservation for a car retail centre in the zone.”

Airport Appeal
The objective of the joint
scheme is to get new companies to locate their operations
in the zone as well as the creation of thousands of new jobs
there. The scheme relies on the
growing popularity of the airport environment as a company location; this is a trend that
can be observed all over the
world.
“The business areas which
hold the most appeal and potential from the point of view of
dynamic, modern companies are
very often located right next to
thriving airports,” comments
Executive Partner Markku Teittinen from Tampere Business
Region which is an organisation helping investors to set up
business operations in the area.
Teittinen also observes
that very little about the launch
of CLX has been left to chance:

the concept is based on a longterm strategy.
“The Pirkkala municipality has been very committed to
carrying out the strategy and
the results have been tremendous.”

B2B + B2C = CLX
In addition to logistics, the area features strong participation
from trade and hi-tech sectors.
There are both business-to-consumer and business-to-business
companies in CLX, comments
Erkki Korkala.
“The area is up and running and the speed of development is pretty good,” he says,
adding that most new jobs in
the municipality emerge here.
For instance, the immediate vicinity of the airport is vibrant
enough: especially technology
companies – such as Raflatac,
Labkotec and TTS Liftec – have
found homes here.
Tatu Miikkulainen, Managing Director of TTS Liftec,
says that the stellar image of the
business zone was a key factor
behind the decision to move to
the neighbourhood in June.
“The connections are very
good and there are a lot tech-intensive companies here, so we
feel that this is the right place
for us.”
TTS Liftec designs and delivers e.g. systems for loading
and unloading ships in ports. Of
the new premises, two thirds are
used for assembly and storage,
while one third is reserved for
office use.
Miikkulainen believes that

the business zone will continue
to evolve:
“There is already cooperation between the companies here,
but the synergies will grow even
more as new players settle in.”

Retail Renaissance
With regards to trade, there is a
retail centre in Partola that already has solidified its position
with its diverse offering. The retail formula in CLX is, more often than not, to concentrate on
a specific niche of a certain re-