The cornerstone of Porto Franco, the most seaside located business and the shopping centre in Tallinn, was laid yesterday, on 23 August.
‘Porto Franco will be an excellent gate to the sea. We have always dreamed and discussed about opening the city to the sea, which does not mean that the sea has to visible from the city, but that the waterfront region should have a vibrant atmosphere, that there is something to do,’ said Taavi Aas, Mayor of Tallinn at the cornerstone laying event.
‘When architect Rein Zobel studied how Tallinn had been developing from the Middle Ages, he came to the conclusion that the key factors for the city’s development have been the relief of the terrain and the location of the port,’ said Mihkel Tüür, from Kadarik, Tüür. Arhitektid, who authored the architectural design of Porto Franco. ‘In the Tallinn region the ground level rises by a couple of millimetres a year, and therefore the port has moved further away from the Old Town, providing us a historic possibility to build up this area, which now separates the Old Town from the sea. Such possibilities are quite rare, and thus the new urban structure and the architectural solution developed for this location has to be dignified enough to create a new modern city centre in the region separating the Medieval Old Town of Tallinn and the port.’
‘The cornerstone is a symbolic gesture and, at the same time, something quite tangible: thoughts and drawings have transformed into actions, while actions have been translated into results. We do not have just a foundation in place, as it is often the situation with a building that has reached its cornerstone stage, but the 3 underground storeys of the first building as well,’ said Rauno Teder, the Chair of the Management Board of Port Franco in his address given on the occasion. ‘Today we have reached the ground level with our construction, and all future stages will now be here for everyone to see.’
Porto Franco is a unique property development project, which will open the Tallinn city centre up to the sea, being the only commercial and leisure area at the seafront. A total of 190 million euros will be invested in the development of Porto Franco, and the new multifunctional city block will have over 150,000 m2 of premises. The Porto Franco complex consists of three underground floors with 1,170-space parking garage and leased premises for retail purposes, and of five above-ground floors occupied by the shopping centre, the office centre and the hotel. The developer of the Porto Franco centre is Porto Franco OÜ. The shareholders of Porto Franco OÜ are successful Estonian capital-based companies which, in addition to their core business, have started investing in long-term projects creating added value to Estonia’s economic environment. The management of the company has long-term international experience in the development of office and retail premises.
Rauno Teder, the Chair of the Management Board of Port Franco
Rauno Teder, the Chair of the Management Board of Port Franco