The Sawyer Group team and partners proceed with redevelopment of the Konepaja Train Factory (ex-train carriage workshop) in the downtown area of Helsinki.
November, 3, 2022. The project team celebrates the opening of another anchor tenant – the international supermarket Lidl. The shop area is 1900 m2, rent for 10 years. Lidl is one of the largest supermarket companies in Europe, being established in 32 countires all over the world.
Lidl is a part of Schwarz-Group – a wholesale grocery supplier, founded in 1930 in Germany. Lidl persistently advocates for social and environmental values and is the first carbon-neutral grocery store in Finland.
The Sawyer Group, as a general developer and co-investor of the project, considered a need for a supermarket on the project area already at the stage of the redevelopment concept drafting. The analysis, conducted by the company employees, confirmed the effectiveness of the project location at the centre of the Finnish capital with a high car and pedestrian traffic, which, combined with a spectacular historic architecture, forms up a high demand on grocery store operators and different forms of fast food and leisure. The talks with Lidl lasted around a year together with approval of all technical requirements of the company. It demanded precise and accurate actions considering the cultural heritage status of the buildings. Thanks to the Sawyer Group (prev. GVA Sawyer) 30 year experience of development in Russia and abroad and high proficiency of its employees and Finnish partners, all works are done within the timelines required by tenant and according to the Finnish cultural heritage code.
After completing the redevelopment of the main sections of the Konepaja Train Factory, the second stage will be the construction of a high-class hotel and a modern office high-rise building.
There were already long queues at the first day of Lidl’s opening. We are more than glad to welcome our new partner on the project and wish the Lidl’s team the best of luck in all its future endeavours!
