Shopping Center's €40 Million Extension Greenlighted
The Ülemiste shopping mall near the airport has received a 84.5 million euro loan, which will partially be used to finance a major extension.
The entire center will receive a new look and 25,000 m2 of new floor space, bringing the size of the mall to 92,000 m2, the operator of Ülemiste said in a press release today.
The last hurdle, approval from the lender, was cleared today, and construction work should be complete by October 2014.
Ülemiste, surrounded by hectares of parking lot space, has recently been in the news as being a popular meeting point for evening and nighttime street racers. This will change as the expansion takes up some of that space. The complex will get a multi-level parking garage and a cinema.
The rest of the loan will be used to refinance previous loans.
ETV reported on Thursday that two other shopping centers for the Ülemiste area are on the drawing board. Just down the road on the way out of town toward Tartu, Selver hypermarket will become an anchor tenant in a 131,000-square-meter development also slated for opening in autumn 2014.
While the Rail Baltic terminal and a underground tram track are other projects linked with the Ülemiste area, where currently major roadwork is going on, with a fall 2013 deadline.