Estonia announces tender for joint building of 4 ministries

Photo: RKAS

The state real estate management company RKAS has announced a tender aimed to find the developer for a complex of buildings that would house four Estonian government ministries in the future.

RKAS described the project as unique, as under it four ministries would move into the same location. A joint complex of buildings will allow to save nearly eight million euros over a period of ten years, it said.

The building is expected to be ready in 2016.

Under the arrangement, the developer would get the right of superficies to the property and a rental agreement on the complex would be concluded for ten years.

The joint complex of the ministries of finance, economy and communications, social affairs and justice complete with two underground parking levels will be built on the plots of Suur-Ameerika 1 and Vaike-Ameerika 2, Tallinn, in the place of the present building of the Ministry of Finance that would be demolished and the land between the present structure and a stadium situated behind it.

Moving four ministries into a single energy-efficient complex with a modern work environment helps the government to save on costs for the upkeep of property in the future. A work environment will be created that enables close cooperation between ministries, bringing together support services and thereby offering better service, RKAS said.

All general purpose rooms such as the assembly hall, computer class, press conference and meeting venues will be shared by the different tenants, meaning that ministries will be no longer required to maintain premises that are used only seldom.

At present the four ministries have altogether 20,735 square meters of office area at their disposal. According to RKAS, the existing buildings would require significant investments in the coming few years to improve energy efficiency and improve work environment.

Relocation into a common building of low energy consumption and efficient use of space enables them to do with 14,420 square meters combined. At the same time access for residents will improve as the site of the new building is easily accessible by foot and public transport alike.

The new building's energy consumption will be less than half of that of the present buildings, which is consistent with the energy efficiency goals of the European Union. New buildings put up today must have energy consumption not higher than 160 kilowatt-hours per square meter per year.

Starting 2019 all new buildings of the public sector must be near zero energy buildings. The annual energy consumption of the planned structure of the four ministries is from 100-120 kWh per square meter.

The building design of the complex was completed by EA Reng AS.

The deadline for applying for the concession is Oct. 11.