Hemsö acquires municipal campus grounds in Finland

The acquisition of the Paavola Campus in the City of Lahti, which is the largest development project in the municipality’s history, will be finished in stages between 2021 and 2023. The campus will be home to preschools, elementary and secondary schools, and adult education for approximately 2,500 children and young people.

“This is a unique opportunity to develop a large and new campus area in the city centre together with the City of Lahti. We view the collaboration with the city has highly interesting, since it has a major need for educational facilities and other social infrastructure,” says Jarkko Leinonen, Head of Asset Management Finland at Hemsö.

The development project totals just over 30,000 sqm of lettable area. The tenant will be the City of Lahti, which has signed a 20-year rental agreement for all of the space. The rental agreement for the buildings will apply as the various sub-projects are completed.

“This is the first time that the city has sold properties and projects of this size. Our mission is to provide functional, environmentally friendly and safe facilities for city residents. Owning properties is not our primary task and in this respect, Hemsö will be a stable partner for us,” says Jouni Arola, Director of Facilities for the City of Lahti.

Lahti is approximately 90 km northeast of Helsinki and is the capital of the region of Päijät-Häme. With approximately 120,000 residents, Lahti is Finland’s eighth-largest city. Lahti offers university education through the University of Helsinki (bioscience and natural sciences) and Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology (LUT). There are also several vocational and higher vocational education programmes.

Hemsö already owns 100,000 sqm of educational property in Finland.