The next step will be to enter into a sales contract with the buyer, RKAS said, adding that the transaction is expected to be completed in January.

The starting bid of the public auction was set at €4.5 million.

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.

A single bid was placed in the auction of the complex, which the auction committee deemed as having met all terms and conditions.

Sõõrumaa has previously stated that he intends to build a modern urban center including apartments, stores, cafes and office space in the complex, and has estimated that investments into the complex will total around €100 million. He has also not ruled out involving additional investors in the project.

The sea fortress complex is located at the addresses Kalaranna 28, 30 and 32 and Vesilennuki 2. Any rights and obligations arising from the respective detailed spatial plans will be transferred to the future owner of the properties.

Nicholas I

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.

Nikolai Esimene OÜ, the subsidiary company founded by Sõõrumaa's U.S. Invest in order to place a bid on the complex, is a reference to the Russian tsar.

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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