Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2012 | Page 29

the creation of infrastructure and providing
public services is crucial for any new area.
Among the many considerations in
property development is the environment.
Anttalainen points out that regional interests meet local concerns in this area quite
frequently: should one walk over to the local store or drive to the nearest shopping
centre? Motorisation of society is still going
strong, despite the Climate Change gospel.
With this in mind, the Finnish Government is looking to encourage construction in
natural traffic hubs, where people can enjoy
effective public transportation. NCC is in
tune with the times: there are, for instance,
deck construction projects under way in both
Tampere and Hämeenlinna with buildings
raised above either train tracks or motorway, respectively.

Metro Momentum
Another example would be the western
metroline expansion in Espoo. Slated for
completion in 2015, the new line will push
west from the Ruoholahti station in Helsinki and make stops at the key traffic hubs
around Espoo. The end of the line is Matinkylä which is home to Iso Omena, one of the
biggest shopping centres in Finland. NCC is
very active in the development of the metro
station and the surrounding neighbourhood.
NCC, having partnered up with
Citycon, won a competition for the development rights of the new metro centre which
will become a significant meeting point for
people as well as an ultramodern traffic hub.
In addition to the metro station, NCC and
Citycon will construct also a bus terminal,
parking spaces for feeder traffic, apartments
and a significant amount of new commercial space which will be smoothly connected to the current Iso Omena.
As the metro centre gets going, Iso
Omena’s current rentable commercial area
will grow by half and the amount of parking spaces will increase by about 1,000.
The construction of Matinkylä metro centre is expected to kick off by the beginning
of 2013.
Jukka Manninen says that the Matinkylä project is a great opportunity to launch
new kind of urban space – a place that is
enjoyable from the viewpoint of a resident,
consumer or a citizen.
“Living comfort will be considerably
boosted and public services will be concentrated, at least in part, in here.” The City of
Espoo is thinking about, for instance, building a swimming hall in the neighbourhood.

Garden City 2.0
The City of Espoo also has high hopes for
Suurpelto which was designed to be an ”ICT
Garden City” with plenty of both international and environmental flavor. Suurpelto
serves as a pilot community for waste man-

Suurpelto area in Espoo, the future Garden city 2.0.
agement solutions and other groundbreaking services, as well as green construction.
There are already almost 1,000 residents in the area and another thousand will
be added every year from now on, for quite
some time. To provide a true heart for the
community, NCC Property Development
is working to introduce Service Campus
in Suurpelto. In addition to the commercial centre for the citizens, Service Campus
will feature business and residential premises. NCC has drawn out a plan for the area together with architect agency Tommila and is eager to proceed with the project.
“The City of Espoo has put a lot of
effort into the development of the area, especially with regards to infrastructure. We
feel that we can help the community take the
next step forward with the launch of Service
Campus,” Jukka Manninen says.
Petri Anttalainen adds that Suurpelto
is also a testbed for e-services. He believes
that traditional services – such as going to
a restaurant – are not going anywhere, but
it is still worthwhile to develop new concepts that provide alternatives to the citizens.
Suurpelto apartment buildings feature, for
example, a designated services space at the
lobby, which is a drop off / pick up point for
e.g. meals, medicine or groceries.
“Digital services and e-trade keep
evolving, but there are still questions to
address – such as efficient logistics,” says
Anttalainen.

Face the Future
Of course, the change won’t happen overnight. Manninen points out that the development of Espoo’s Leppävaara, for instance,
really started as early as 1995, and is still
far from done. In many regards, the building of new communities is all about managing something that is incomplete; unfinished. Director Reijo Päärni says that dealing with such issues is demanding: “We are
building human-scale communities, but the
‘finished product’ takes a long time to take
shape.”
The upside with the long timeframe
is, of course, that economic fluctuations
can’t derail projects very easily. Construction costs, for example, are less expensive
during recession. With another recession on
the horizon, Päärni is not overly concerned:
“The economy is always going up or down,
but the one constant is change. We must be
able to evolve as w