

Inspired by the work of Alma Tomingas, Estonia’s first female professor, the green building was created in cooperation with architects, service designers, researchers from the University of Tartu, as well as urban strategists, arborists, indoor climate, LEED, and digital experts, and gRrabbit, a creator of innovation in catering.
‘Many real estate developers hit the brakes during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, preferring to wait and see what the future holds. However, we made the bold decision to begin the construction of a building with a completely new concept. It will be one of the most well-thought-out and talent-focused working environments in Estonia and perhaps even the whole of Europe’, said Ursel Velve, Chairman of the Management Board of Mainor Ülemiste AS.
The Alma Tomingas building will be completed by November 2022, representing the office building project with the largest investment (over EUR 30 million) in Ülemiste City.
‘A building is emerging, one that we are creating in cooperation with the architects from the architectural firm PLUSS Architects from start to finish and from the inside out – based on the needs of our current and future talents. Awaiting them is a green environment, with the boundary between indoor and outdoor space being shifted by a large indoor atrium with balconies, a four-metre waterfall and an interactive forest, where it will be nice to meet with colleagues or let your imagination soar alone in the tropical microclimate. The innovation and greenery being created is a step taken in the name of better employee health’, explained Velve.
‘With the completion of the Alma Tomingas building, we will have once again created value and attractiveness for the Suur-Ülemiste of the future and the realisation of this vision, which in the future combines Estonia’s most important transport hub, the best shopping centre in the Baltics, and the largest and most meaningful business campus in the Nordic countries. Therefore, Suur-Ülemiste – which is likely to become one of Tallinn’s most important export items through business and conventional tourism – deserves only the best. The best content and the best form – the building will definitely meet these criteria’, said Guido Pärnits, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Mainor Group.
The 11-storey green building being built in the immediate vicinity of Tallinn Airport will meet the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Gold standard, the installation of solar panels and the first district heating and cooling system in the campus will take place, the switchover to which will save 1500 trees worth of CO2 per year in the future.
Fujitsu and Skeleton: a creative working environment is the key to success
The future tenants of the Alma Tomingas building include brands with global reach and recognition, led by technology giant Fujitsu and Skeleton, which is aspiring to be the next unicorn. Both were fascinated primarily by the well-designed nature and ambition of the project.
Skeleton Technologies has risen to become the largest manufacturer of supercapacitors in Europe, using technology that was developed in Estonia to provide energy to the products of the world’s top companies. The growth of the company is clearly reflected in the fact that it will occupy ten times more office space in the Alma Tomingas building than it did when it first moved to Ülemiste City in 2018. As a pioneer in the field, the focus is on recruiting the best talent from Estonia and elsewhere, with the ability to offer the best working environment being of critical importance.
‘The decision to move into the Alma Tomingas building underlines our continued commitment to providing employees with the healthiest and most creative working environment possible. We understand that if we fail to take their well-being into consideration, the company will not see any breakthrough innovations. The move to a new office – where the most efficient standards have been created to reduce energy demand and CO2 emissions and to conserve natural resources – will help contribute to bringing our plans for growth to life’, said Nele Leht, Chief of Staff at Skeleton Technologies.
Merilin Mõttus, Facilities Manager at Fujitsu Estonia, stated that the modernisation of offices and workplaces is constantly being carried out, but the decision to move to Ülemiste marks the realisation of many good ideas, which will provide momentum to environmentally friendly thinking and practices.
‘Fujitsu’s mission is to make the world more sustainable by building trust in society through innovation. We work on a global level with technologies that create environments that serve as a great place for people to live and work’, said Mõttus.
She gave examples of the approach: ‘We have created smart spaces where you can control your movements and activities with facial or palm vein detection. Also worth mentioning are solutions for detecting and warning of employee fatigue, measuring room occupancy and workload, as well as monitoring the condition of road surfaces and the spread of invasive plant species’.
The author and chief designer of the idea for the building with more than 20,000 square metres is the architectural firm PLUSS Architects; the builders are NOBE and the Nordecon consortium.
Mainor Ülemiste AS, the developer of Ülemiste City had its most successful year ever – the 2018 sales were 8.8 million euros, up 14% in comparison with the year before and profits 9.3 million euros, a 10% increase from last year.
Upon the initiative of Mainor AS, the Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech) will open a first ever City of the Future Professorship this autumn. The developers of Ülemiste City are planning to invest almost 500,000 euros in the professorship over the next five years.
Ülemiste City’s developer Mainor Ülemiste AS’s subsidiary, Öpiku Majad OÜ, signed a loan agreement with SEB Bank for a loan of EUR 39.5 million.
A new system available to drivers in Ülemiste City can guide them precisely to an available parking spot. The system combines signposts, LED displays, web interface and the most advanced AI video camera image analysis tool. It is one of the largest AI powered parking systems in Europe and the whole world.
A new economic study was introduced which shows that the average monthly salary of people working for companies located in the fast-growing Ülemiste City in Tallinn rose above 2000 euros last year, making it 70% higher than the average Estonian salary.
Mainor Ülemiste AS' subsidiary Öpiku Majad OÜ conluded a credit agreement in amount of 10.7 million euros with the Estonian branch of OP Corporate Bank Plc, which refinances the existing loan from Nordea Bank and finances the construction of Lurich houses.
The International Baccalaureate Organisation granted International School of Tallinn, operating in Tallinn’s Ülemiste City since last year, the status of candidate school for the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme that is recognised all over the world.
The four top Estonian architect firms participating in the competition submitted their designs for renovating and extending an 1899 limestone factory building located at Sepapaja 10 in the very centre of Ülemiste City.
Mainor Ülemiste will start building the first homes in Ülemiste City already this year. The first residential building of the campus – mostly meant for experts arriving from abroad to work in Ülemiste City – is to be completed by 2020.
In just three months, 80% of the innovative booster offices for growing companies have been already reserved in Estonia’s largest office building to be completed this autumn by Mainor Ülemiste. There will be no long-term binding contracts and the meeting rooms, kitchens and reception areas will be shared by several companies.
The rafters went up in a parking house in Tallinn’s Ülemiste City. With room for almost one thousand cars the building will be the largest of its kind in Estonia. The house will be built inside the walls of an old factory building and the first phase is scheduled to be completed by August 2018.
Last year ended with the best ever result for Mainor Ülemiste, the company developing the Ülemiste City campus: they earned 8.6 million euros of profit.
The Estonian branch of the largest financial services group in the Nordic region Nordea Bank AB opened a new service centre in Ülemiste City today, to start offering financial and call centre services, as well as services aimed at countering money laundering.