Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2012 | Page 58

saying that Lahti has been – and continues
to be – a great base of operations for Kemppi. The company has an outsourced distribution warehouse at the Helsinki-Vantaa International airport and deliveries between Lahti and the airport run smoothly.
Kemppi is not the only company which
has realised the logistical benefits of the
Lahti region.
In addition to the Airport, also the
Vuosaari Harbour is one hour away – and
if you’re Russia-bound, it only takes a couple of hours to get to St. Petersburg by the
brand new Allegro train.

Get Connected
The key logistics hubs in the region are Kujala, Nostava and Henna, located in Lahti,
Hollola and Orimattila, respectively. Kujala
logistics centre, for instance, combines great
rail and road connections with a highly conceptualised operative area. The centre was
planned to maximise the synergies inherent
in the partnership concept and is equipped
with a full range of supplementary services.
Kujala centre is located only three kilometers southeast of downtown Lahti.
“Kujala is already in full swing and
is developing a new type of ‘dry port’ concept,” says Essi Alaluukas.
Henna, on the other hand, is an area
which includes also residential activity. Henna subscribes to a “pearls on a string” ideology which calls for sustainable communities to be formed along rail connections.

“Henna could
combine industrial and residential
functions with great
connections,” Alaluukas says, while
adding that negotiations are still under way about the
future of the area.
Nostava is also an interesting
prospect, but local
development has to
wait for a decision
on a potential ring
road.

Finland
d
Oulu
Jyväskylä
Tampere
Lahti

Norway

Sweden

Turku
Stockholm

Hel
He nki
Helsinki
Tallinn

St. Petersburg
t. Pe

Moscow,
China, Asia >

Keep It Clean
Perhaps the most
exciting local sector right now is cleantech which is currently making its international breakthrough.
Lahti region is home to Finland’s second
most important centre for the environmental industry as approximately 10% of Finland’s environmental trade is located here.
In recent years, the cleantech cluster
in Lahti has been experiencing impressive
growth. The special environmental expertise
found in the region encompasses e.g. public water system maintenance, international projects, soil treatment, waste management and recycling. Lahti also spearheads
the national cleantech cluster programme.

Linked more and more to cleantech,
there is also the mechatronics cluster which
is built around the local technology industry. Mechatronics is the biggest industrial
cluster in the Lahti area – when measured
in terms of number of companies, overall
turnover, and number of employees – making up 30% of all industry.
Essi Alaluukas comments that one of
the interesting trends in Lahti is that companies and industries are exploring synergies in
unprecedented ways: “As a consequence, we
see design, cleantech and mechatronics converge more and more,” she says.

Building on Success

D

esign is no flavour of the month in
Lahti. Jyrki Myllyvirta, Mayor of
Lahti, says that industrial design was
selected as one of the focus points of the
City’s business strategy long before any
WDC2012 action came to exist. Nevertheless, the Mayor acknowledges that the special year gives “an additional boost” to companies who are looking to capitalise on local design expertise.
“At the same time, we are providing
the citizens with new ways to participate in
the development of the city environment and
are working together to make Lahti an even
more enjoyable community.”
One characteristic of Lahti is that the
environment is very versatile – and the plans
for development fully reflect this. Myllyvirta says that the attraction of the City revolves largely around such things as the delightful city centre and the upgraded pedestrian areas.
The vicinity of the train station – and
the areas along the tracks – offer “the most
significant opportunity of the decade” for
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