One of the largest infrastructure investments of the coming decade will be managed from the Avala Business Quarter. Rail Baltic Estonia OÜ and RB Rail AS will be moving their office to the Polaris Office Building to be completed in the Avala Business Quarter of Kaamos. Advantages of the new office included a logistically suitable location on the artery of Tallinn city centre as well as energy-efficient and innovative solutions.
“Based on how the Rail Baltica project has progressed and is progressing, the team has also grown in recent years and will continue to grow even more. This necessitated finding a new office space that meets today’s and tomorrow’s needs, while at the same time being optimal and sustainable,” Lagle-Katrin Lembavere, the Office Manager of Rail Baltic Estonia explained the reasons for the move.
Lembavere explained the choice of the new office space primarily by ensuring high satisfaction of employees. “Despite the fact that we are working more and more from home offices or simply remotely, a high-quality working environment is still a part of the employees’ satisfaction with the employer,” Lembavere said. She explained that a modern working environment supports the employees’ motivation and helps to achieve results, and it is also important that people in the office do not have to worry about basic conditions that would inhibit their enthusiasm and substantive contribution.
According to Lembavere, such a big decision is also dependent on the location, so that logistics between work and home, also getting to and from different Rail Baltica sites is as simple as possible and doesn’t become work in its own right. She added that being close to frequent cooperation partners such as the city government and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications is also important. “While parking is an issue in the city centre, it is crucial for us that project managers can travel from the office parking lot to the site relatively congestion-free, if necessary,” Lembavere said.
In addition to the well-being of employees, the office space of a major project also needs to take into account the image of the company. “As there are more and more international partners to the Rail Baltica project, it is important to have a smart and representative office solution where, in addition to everyday work, we can comfortably host partners,” Lembavere emphasised.
Taimo Murer, the Head of Kaamos Kinnisvara, said that interest in flexible office spaces that adhere to sustainable principles and are employee-friendly remains. “Today, Tallinn has become an international hub for business and cross-border investment projects need working conditions that meet European standards that would be sufficiently flexible for companies in the growth phase and would also give a reason to return to the office from teleworking,” Murer said.
He admitted that while the first office building of the Avala Business Quarter, Electra, has essentially found its tenants in full, 4,000 m2 of office spaces are still vacant today in the Polaris Office Building to be completed in the summer.
In answer to the question of how great the challenge it is to find a suitable office space today, Lembavere believes that it is the same as in life in general. “There seems to be a lot of supply on the market, but if you’re looking for something specific that would meet your expectations, finding it is more difficult than you would expect,” Lembavere said.
The Office Manager of RBE admitted that while there are a lot of various office spaces on the market, finding a suitable sustainable working environment is a challenge for a price-conscious client.
Rail Baltic Estonia OÜ is a company developing the Rail Baltica project in Estonia, which also represents the interests of the Estonian state in the joint venture of the Baltic States, RB Rail AS.
Electra, the first office building in the Avala Business Quarter, which is similar to the second, Polaris Office Building to be completed in the summer, won the People’s Choice title at the prestigious real estate development competition Baltic Real Estate Investment Forum 2021.
