Properties | Arabia’s historic factory block was supposed to be transformed – The owner of the property explains the prolonged silence

Arabian the future of the historic factory block in Helsinki will not come true as planned.

The occupational pension company Varma that owns the property planned a few years ago, there was a lot of new construction in the area.

New jobs and apartments for a maximum of 1,250 people were to come to the block. The tallest building would have been a 25-story residential tower block.

For sure premises manager Toni Pekonen justifies the quiet life of the area by the fact that instead of housing-oriented new construction, the block was wanted to be developed to be more versatile than it is now.

New plans are now being worked on, which will be detailed in the fall.

“We are currently running concept and project planning, where certain parts of the block will be solved in a different way than what was planned in 2018.”

According to Pekonen, the purpose is to use more of the old building stock than previously planned and to build less new. For example, the tower house is unlikely to be realized as it is, but the plans for residential construction have not been completely abandoned.

“In the previous plan, it was intended that the old Arabia factory hall would have been partially demolished. In current thoughts, the factory hall will be preserved and versatile year-round activities will be developed there.”

At this stage, Pekonen does not want to reveal in detail what the future operation will be like. There are different options on the design table.

“The ambitious goal is to make Helsinki an even more interesting area that could interest a larger audience.”

Factory block the change became relevant in 2016, when the Fiskars group operated in the area told to shut down the factory’s operations and move them abroad.

This spring, Fiskars moved its headquarters to a new office building in Keilanieme, Espoo. Fiskars’ Iittala & Arabia store still continues to operate in the factory block.

The Pop & Jazz Conservatory, which operated in the block’s old buildings, moved to new premises at the other end of the block in the spring as well.