20.12.2018Mainor Ülemiste's subsidiary signed a loan agreement of nearly EUR 40 million  

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.

The agreement with SEB Pank is the largest in the history of developers of Ülemiste City since joining the euro zone. With the help of fresh funding it is planned to develop the new educational complex, offices and an innovative health center. Under the same roof will gather all neccessary medical staff to serve local clients and foreign specialists as well. The newest development in the campus is however the residential real estate, which generates hundreds of rental homes to embark 24/7 buzzing campus. At the same time, the loan will be partially used to refinance commitments made to develop the Öpik quarter.

The main activity of Mainor Ülemiste is the development of Ülemiste City as the largest business district in the Baltics constructed on the premises of the former Dvigatel factory near the Tallinn Airport. As of today, the 36 hectare of the district have 130,000 square metres of rentable office space in which over 10,000 people are working in more than 400 companies. Ülemiste City is developed by Mainor Ülemiste AS and Technopolis Ülemiste AS.

12.12.2018A unique artificial intelligence system now directs Ülemiste City drivers to available parking spots  

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.

Thousands of drivers come to Ülemiste City every day, for work and for brief meetings. In the past, looking for a parking space was a lot like playing a lottery, but from now on a new smart system, launched this week, will guide drivers to an available parking spot - both online and in the parking lots.

Conventional systems require sensors installed in the pavement

"We have been looking for a similar technology for a long time, we searched for the best technical solution in the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, but our task was not easy," said Ursel Velve, Member of the Management Board at Mainor Ülemiste. "This might sound weird; there are parking counters in most of the shopping centers - but this problem is much easier to solve in a closed parking lot than outside."

Many of the potential solutions were based on pavement-mounted sensors that were not suitable for Ülemiste, as the city is in constant development.

The open car census system is unique because it does not require any additional sensors. "The same cameras that ensure the safety in Ülemiste are also used for keeping track of parking spaces," Velve said.

Namely, with the help from Europark and Pixevia, the optimal solution found to determine whether a parking spot is full or empty was to use image analysis on the video feed from car park cameras. Users can even find accurate information about available parking spots in all the car parking lots in Ülemiste City online, straight from their car.

"The information on how many free spaces we have will be provided to the drivers in car parks through LED displays, as well as online for those still planning their journey," Velve said.

What about snow?

The new Ülemiste parking system was launched just as early winter weather arrived in Tallinn. According to Velve, even when parking lots are covered with snow, it does not interfere with picture recognition. "The only problem might be the snow covering road markings, which can lead to disorderly parking. But if we guide drivers with a few flags, they can park properly and be unaffected by snow."

The Europark partner Pixevia uses images from ordinary security cameras and analyzes them using artificial intelligence algorithms. This allows the software to detect whether parking spaces are occupied and it can then relay this information to drivers.

04.10.2018Study reveals: monthly salary in Ülemiste City 70% higher than Estonian average  

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.

In 2017, the average gross salary was 1221 euros in Estonia and 1383 euros in Tallinn. But the new study shows that at the same time, the average monthly salary in the Ülemiste City reached 2077 euros. The average salary in the Estonian IT sector for the same period was 2613 euros while in the Ülemiste City, it reached 2940 euros.

According to Mainor Ülemiste Supervisory Board member Raivo Vare, today, nearly 400 enterprises are actively operating in Ülemiste City – the first smart city in Estonia. More than 10 000 people work there on a daily basis, a number similar to the population of a town the size of Haapsalu.

“Ülemiste City is spearheading entrepreneurship in Estonia and this new study shows that the companies here create about 50% more added value than average companies. The creation of added value is the key component here as that is the main challenge for Estonia to overcome,” said Vare. He also explained that the reason behind the above-average salaries being paid by the campus’ companies is the fact that employees who create more added value need to be paid a higher salary.

The study also took a closer look at the local IT sector. According to the study, 1.4% of all Estonian IT companies operate in Ülemiste City and at the same time, those companies hire 18% of all Estonian IT sector employees, pay for 26% of the sector’s labour costs, produce 25% of the added value created by the sector and form 27% of Estonia’s total IT export.

The smart city study conducted by the Estonian Entrepreneurship University of Applied Sciences also shows that the 2017 turnover of the companies operating in Ülemiste City totalled 1.15 billion euros, of which export constituted 500 million euros. The companies earned a combined total annual operating profit of 75 million euros and their assets formed an end-of-year total of 1.6 billion euros.

Tauno Õunapuu from Estonian Entrepreneurship University of Applied Sciences said that the long-term tenants of Ülemiste City have seen a greater-than-average rate of growth in their sales revenue, export, added value and net profit. “In Estonia and in Tallinn, Labour costs have generally followed the same trend that was seen in the previous years’ studies, but the absolute level of the company labour costs in Ülemiste City continue to be significantly higher than elsewhere in Estonia,” said Õunapuu.

25.09.2018Mainor Ülemiste’s subsidiary concluded a credit agreement in amount of 10.7 million euros  

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 13-floor Lurich quarter's rental apartments’ house and the 8-floor office tower with the address Valukoja 10 are going to be built between the old limestone walls of Dvigatel factory. The proposed completion date of the building is in the first half of 2020, after which the modern district becomes active 24/7.

The construction start of the first residential building of Ülemiste City, and the office tower next to it, is planned already for this autumn. The 13-floor building, bearing the name of Georg Lurich, will have 82 rental apartments and the 8-floor commerical building modern office spaces. The building complex is designed by the architectural firm Pluss.

OP Corporate Bank Plc, who is financing the construction, is a leading Finnish financial services group which offers services for large and medium-sized companies in Estonia.

The main activity of Mainor Ülemiste is the development of Ülemiste City as the largest business district in the Baltics constructed on the premises of the former Dvigatel factory near the Tallinn Airport. As of today, the 36 hectare of the district have 130,000 square metres of rentable office space in which over 10,000 people are working in 380 companies. By 2025, it is estimated that 20,000 people will live, work and study in the district. The Ülemiste City district is developed by Mainor Ülemiste AS and Technopolis Ülemiste AS.

23.08.2018Estonia Gets New IB Candidate School  

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.

According to Olavi Otepalu, Headmaster of International School of Tallinn, International Baccalaureate (IB) is a well-known and reliable programme, which enables the children of foreigners residing in Tallinn continue their studies seamlessly, as they move to another country, for the whole IB philosophy is focused on the international nature of education.  

„Knowing that the quality of teaching is checked regularly by an international organisation means additional security for the parents as well,” Otepalu explained, adding that the IB programmes were built on best educational practices developed over decades, enriching the Estonian educational system as a whole.

During candidate status the preparedness and capabilities of the school to implement the IB programme are assessed. Usually the candidate phase lasts two years. During this period the school actively applies all the IB practises and standards in its daily activities. Upon successful completion of the authorisation process the school becomes an IB World School.

This year International School of Tallinn became an IB candidate school for the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP). Next year the school intends to apply for candidate status for the Middle Years Programme (MYP) and in 2020 for the Diploma Programme (DP).

The two other schools in Tallinn authorised to teach the IB PYP programme are Tallinn English College and International School of Estonia.

Last autumn International School of Tallinn started to provide tuition in English in Ülemiste City in order to increase the competitiveness of the hub and facilitate employment of foreign specialists in Estonia. During this school year tuition is offered in grades 1-8. The students come mostly from Europe and Asia.

Read more about International School of Tallinn: www.ist.ee

16.08.2018People's Favourite Building Design Confirmed as New Heart of Ülemiste City  

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.

Chairman of the Mainor Ülemiste Supervisory Board Guido Pärnits explained that they were looking for a special building that would really stand out in the centre of the hub. “We received four excellent projects. Therefore, I am happy that all parties – the jury consisting of architects and experts, our Supervisory Board and the people – were of the same opinion about the winner,” Pärnits said. The plan is to complete the design process by spring 2019, receive the building permit by the end of 2019 and start construction in 2021.

The winning work by Architectural Design Office PLUSS is called the “epiCentre”. According to the detailed plan the size of the building right is 50 000 m², making the building at Sepapaja 10 effectively the largest structure to be renovated in Ülemiste City.

The vision of the winning design is built on three pillars: the limestone building to be renovated, an innovative rectangular 3-storey office block, which also includes a pedestrian street and is located in the eastern side of the plot and a new O-shaped 9-storey main section rising above the whole structure. A secluded roof garden is the cherry on the cake.

Copper and a lighter shade of limestone are the construction materials to be used. Vertical copper ribs covering the façade are key decorative elements that amplify the form of the building and are well suited for the atmosphere of the industrial landscape.

The other three firms invited to participate in the architectural competition were Allianss Arhitektid, KOKO Arhitektid and HG Arhitektuur.

     

09.08.2018Ülemiste City to Get Its First Residential Building  

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.

Margus Nõlvak, Chairman of the Management Board of Mainor Ülemiste, the company developing Ülemiste City, said that building the first homes was of symbolic significance for the hub that so far had only focused on business. „We wanted to be certain that Ülemiste City had all the necessary infrastructure in place – a decent selection of stores and service providers, kindergarten and schools, cafés and restaurants, training facilities and transport connections – before undertaking the development of residential houses. We are ready now,” Nõlvak said.

„The homes to be built here are primarily meant for people coming from abroad to work in Ülemiste City but also for specialists from elsewhere in Estonia,” Nõlvak explained. „Of the 10 000 people working in the hub, an estimated 15% are foreigners and people arriving from further afield, thus rental apartments are a necessary addition already today,” he added.

According to plans the first residential building in Ülemiste City is to go up at Valukoja St. 10. The construction is scheduled to being this autumn. The 13-storey Lurich Building, named so after the famous Estonian wrestler Georg Lurich, will have 75 apartments for rent, most of them with one, two or three rooms, and one 4-room penthouse. The first residents are expected to move in during the first half of 2020.

The work has already started with demolishing the roof of the Dvigatel workshop, originally built in 1899.The modern Lurich Building will be situated within the old limestone walls. The overhead cranes left from the Soviet era will be preserved and exhibited in the courtyard once the building is completed.

Follow the demolition work live at veebikaamera.ee/Lurichi_maja.html

02.08.2018Mainor Ülemiste to Open New Type of Booster Offices  

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.

According to Margus Nõlvak, Chairman of the Management Board of Mainor Ülemiste, the new booster office concept of the Öpiku Building is based on what the businesses want. „I don’t foresee long-term binding contracts in the office space market in the future. Even today, companies want more flexible contracts, in order to manage their businesses more effectively,” said Nõlvak with confidence.
 
“We completed the prototype product about a year ago, when we made direct offers for short-term lease contracts for 20 such spaces in the first office tower of the Öpiku Building. Given the great success of our attempt, we decided to dedicate a similar area to booster offices in the superb Öpiku II office tower, to be opened this autumn. These offices will be made available in the open market,” Nõlvak added.
 
Teet Raudsep, Customer Experience Manager at Mainor Ülemiste, said that demand for offices with shared common areas had been really high and almost 80% of the offices had been taken up in reservations in just three months, with only a few still available before the opening. „The entrepreneurs are not ready to pay for meeting rooms that remain unused half the time or to spend time and money on furnishing and maintenance of the actual office or kitchen area,” Raudsep noted. “They want a really flexible but attractive solution in a place shared by other similarly active businesses,” he said.
 
The booster offices in the Öpiku II office tower to be completed this autumn, are designed for growing companies of 2-6 employees. The price for an office with two work stations starts from 250 euros per month and includes furniture, wi-fi and cleaning services. In addition to offices there is also a stylish common area that comprises the reception, kitchen and resting area, as well as five meeting rooms with state-of-the-art equipment that can be booked on an as needed basis. Once the second office tower is ready, the Öpiku Building will become the largest office block in Estonia.
 
The core activity of Mainor Ülemiste is to develop the largest business hub in the Baltic States, located on the territory of the former Dvigatel factory, right next to Tallinn Airport. The campus lies on 36 hectares and has 120 000 m² of office space to rent. There are more than 380 businesses employing almost 10 000 people in the hub. The developers of Ülemiste City are Mainor Ülemiste AS and Technopolis Ülemiste AS.

More information about booster offices: opiku.ee/kasvukontor

26.03.2018Estonia’s Largest Parking House to Be Built in Ülemiste City  

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.

In the first construction phase the production hall of the old Dvigatel factory will be turned into a five-story 14 000 m2 parking house accommodating 436 vehicles.

According to Margus Nõlvak, Chairman of the Management Board of Mainor Ülemiste, the Ülemiste City developer, parking is the most talked-about service in the Ülemiste hub, for it concerns many of those who come to work here and also their clients. „This is our Achilles’ heel. Solving the parking problem is one of our most important goals for 2018. The situation will improve considerably by the end of the summer with the opening of the new parking house,” Nõlvak promised.

“At the same time, we are testing a unique smart parking solution, a convenient way to find free parking space in the large parking lots of Ülemiste City. This system ought to make the drivers’ life many times easier in comparison with the current situation,” Nõlvak added at the rafter party of the parking house.

The parking house is being built right next to the Öpiku twin office towers and is to be ready immediately before the completion of the Öpiku II block in August. The new parking house will be situated within the walls of the old Dvigatel mechanical assembly shop No 17. The gourmet restaurant Juur and MyFitness sports club are also located in the same old industrial building. The developer of the parking house is Mainor Ülemiste and Nordecon Betoon is constructing the almost 4-million-euro building.

01.03.201835% Annual Increase in Mainor Ülemiste Profits  

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.

According to Margus Nõlvak, Chairman of the Management Board of Mainor Ülemiste 2017 was the most successful year ever for the company, with sales up 34% and profits 35% in comparison with the year before. “Every year we contribute to the further development of Ülemiste City, in order to create an even more convenient and inspiring working environment for the employees of the 380 businesses operating here,” Nõlvak added. He said that they had invested 16 million euros last year in the hub, raising the value of investment property to 102 million euros.

Last year the company concluded an investment contract with Nordea Bank in order to start building the second office tower of the Öpiku Building and the new parking house. Work also started on renovating an old factory building to turn it into a modern IT-centre. In 2017 an old Dvigatel assembly shop was also converted to make room for the gourmet restaurant Juur and MyFitness sports club, which has the largest gym and swimming pool in Estonia. In addition, the International School of Tallinn, offering tuition in English, started its activities in the campus last autumn and the Mainor Estonian Entrepreneurship University of Applied Sciences opened a new dormitory accommodating 80 students.

“Ülemiste City today is the size of a smart and active small town in Estonia – it has its educational establishments, everything from kindergarten to university, the airport and railway station are nearby and trams and buses connect the campus with the centre of Tallinn,” Nõlvak explained, adding that more people come to work every day to Ülemiste City than there are inhabitants in the town of Paide.

The core activity of Mainor Ülemiste is to develop the largest business hub in the Baltic States, located on the territory of the former Dvigatel factory, right next to Tallinn Airport. The campus lies on 36 hectares and has 120 000 m 2 of space to rent. There are more than 380 businesses employing almost 10 000 people in the hub. The developers of Ülemiste City are Mainor Ülemiste AS and Technopolis Ülemiste AS.

15.02.2018Nordea Group to Recruit 100 New Employees for the Service Centre opened in Ülemiste City  

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.

According to the branch manager Jelena Trumm the Nordea Eesti Service Centre will employ almost 180 persons immediately and the company intends to recruit another 100 in the near future. The Nordea Service Centre is part of the Nordea Bank AB Group, the largest financial institution in Northern Europe with 30 000 employees.

The Estonian centre will be providing support to the Nordic units of the Nordea Bank AB Group, offering financial and call centre services and also services to counter money laundering. The centre’s working languages are Finnish, Swedish and English.