Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2018 | Page 40

SRV is set to raise the long-awaited Deck and Arena in Tampere
For years, there have been plans to solidify the city structure of Tampere by building a deck above the railway tracks
downtown. The idea is to join east and west Tampere with a new type of hybrid block combining housing, commercial
pursuits and a state-of-the-art sports and event arena. The ambitious undertaking is known as the Deck and Arena
project. According to the project schedule, the entire project will be completed in 2023.
S
pearheaded by construction company
SRV and the City of Tampere, the
project features a hotel, restaurants
and other entertainment premises – such
as only the second Veikkaus casino in the
entire nation. With a price tag of over EUR
500 million, the project is a “huge under-
taking” for SRV, says Project Director Hen-
rik Eklund.
“Our company is known for its exper-
tise in developing city centres, and we feel
that there’s a lot we can achieve in Tam-
pere,” he says. “For example, the sports and
event arena in question will be the biggest in
the land, with a capacity of approximately
13,000 people.”
According to Eklund, SRV is eager to
boost the urban evolution in Tampere – the
largest inland city in all of Scandinavia – and
has been talking with the City since sum-
mer 2016 to develop this project onwards.
Hybrid Excellence
According to the plans, the first phase of
the project is to involve covering the south-
40 Nordicum
ern railway yard with a deck on which the
arena, a hotel and two towers will be built.
The second phase will encompass the north-
ern deck and three towers. An estimated one
thousand new homes will be built by the pro-
ject as a whole, says Eklund.
“As is the case in many of our new
projects, we are going hybrid with this one,
integrating leisure, residential and office ele-
ments.”
In October, the Deck and Arena pro-
ject took one important step closer to being
realised, as SRV and the project’s invest-
ment partners, LocalTapiola and OP Finan-
cial Group’s insurance and pension insur-
ance companies, signed a joint venture
agreement. At the same time, SRV signed
a shareholder agreement for the multi-pur-
pose arena with the City of Tampere. The
project’s investment partners will become
shareholders in the project company once
the final investment decision has been made.
The following month the project
received more good news as the Finn-
ish Parliament granted a state subsidy of
EUR 18 million for the arena. According to
Eklund, the Deck and Arena is a project of
also national ramifications, since it creates
a powerful logistical hub.
“We are pleased to have the State
onboard with this and are hoping to final-
ise the details of the project soon,” he says.
Kings of the Ice
Already the first operator and cooperation
agreements have been signed for the Deck and
Arena project: the Finnish national hockey
league teams Tappara and Ilves will play their
home games in the new arena and Lapland
Hotels will run the adjoining hotel. The con-
tract was also signed with Restamax for the
multi-purpose arena’s restaurant services.
“This is the first time in Europe where
we see a fully integrated hotel in connec-
tion to an arena,” Eklund says, revealing
that some hotel rooms will have their own
private balconies which allow the guests to
watch a game or a show.
Toni Kankare, Account Director at
SRV, adds that it is also true that no other
arena in Finland can rival the “total enter-
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