Hemsö develops new school in city centre of Helsinki

Hemsö has been awarded a lease agreement by the City of Helsinki in a public procurement. The city will rent premises for two upper-secondary schools for the arts in Helsinki. An extensive redevelopment will be carried out on the property at Siltavuorenpenger, which Hemsö acquired in 2021. The lease agreement has a 15-year term, and the lettable area is 5,000 square metres.

Hemsö, in partnership with the City of Helsinki, will develop new premises for the Visual Arts School of Helsinki and Kalio Upper Secondary School at Siltavuorenpenger in the Kruununhaka district in Helsinki.

“Offering modern, first-class premises to current and future students of the arts is important to us. For example, we previously refurbished the premises of the University of Arts in Helsinki and developed new premises for the Joensuu Conservatory of Music and Gaudia Upper Secondary School in Lahti, all of which focus on studies in the arts. We are now taking those experiences with us into this development project. We are looking forward to continuing our excellent partnership with the representatives of the city,” says Tino Raatikainen, Project Developer at Hemsö.

“The current premises of the school for the arts are no longer sufficient. We were looking for a reliable, established partner to develop new premises, and Hemsö fulfilled our criteria well,” says Juha Aaltonen, Project Manager for the City of Helsinki.

In this re-development, the premises will be upgraded with the latest technology, and the inner courtyards will feature bicycle parking and spaces for outdoor learning. The energy efficiency of the buildings will also be improved and modernised to meet current requirements.

The first phase of the development project will be completed in the summer of 2025 and the second phase in the summer of 2026.

Hemsö owns approximately 150,000 square metres of educational property in Finland.