An evaluation committee will now verify the documents submitted by the bidder for compliance with conditions set for the buyer.

Once it is established that the conditions are met, a second envelope with the bidder's offer will be opened. Should the auction be deemed successful, the winner will be determined and the outcome of the auction endorsed in mid-December, Estonian state real estate management company Riigi Kinnisvara AS (RKAS) said.

The agreement with the buyer will then be signed within 60 days of the announcement of the results of the auction.

RKAS put the buildings of the Patarei complex up for auction with the starting bid set at €4.5 million. The sea fortress complex is located at the addresses Kalaranna 28 and 30 and Vesilennuki 4. Any rights and obligations arising from the respective detailed spatial plans will be transferred to the future owner of the properties.

According to the properties' spatial plans, there can be altogether 11 buildings on the properties, the intended purposes of which are residential, commercial and non-residential.

The goal of the auction was to find a buyer for the Patarei properties who is prepared and able to renovate the sea fortress as an important monument as well as develop the area as a location and comprehensive environment of importance for the City of Tallinn and the Kalamaja neighborhood.

In 1828, Tsar Nicholas I of Russia endorsed a defense plan of Tallinn in accordance with which a coastal defense battery was to be built at the location of former coastal defense structures had stood during Swedish rule. Construction of Patarei's main building began in 1829 and was completed in 1840.

Patarei was used as a Russian army barracks beginning in 1867 and converted into a prison in 1919, a capacity in which it served under various governments and regimes until 2002.

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