HELSINKI, FINLAND, 2015-9-30 — /EPR Retail News/ — The major (re)development and extension of the IsoKristiina shopping centre in the heart of Lappeenranta is now completed. The project, which lasted about two and a half years, saw the old section of IsoKristiina completely refurbished, the shopping centre extended, and the adjacent Hotel Lappee connected to the centre. Today, IsoKristiina has 34,000 square metres of leasable area, of which 27,000 square metres are retail premises. The shopping centre offers visitors 80 different shops and services with strong national and international brands.
The first phase of IsoKristiina was opened in May this year. During the summer and today at the grand opening, several openings have been celebrated at the shopping centre: the Finnkino cinema with four screens, the Fitness 24Seven gym, Tokmanni, Marimekko, Luhta Brand Store, Iittala Outlet, Clas Ohlson, children’s clothing stores Polarn O´Pyret, Lasten vaatekaappi and Bambino, the HOB street fashion shop, e-TaxFree, and Bar Marix. TopSport and the Esprit fashion shop will open later in the winter.
A unique feature of IsoKristiina is that the Theatre of Lappeenranta is entirely located within the shopping centre. There will be plays on the small stage from November, and the big stage will hold its premiere in January 2016. The City of Lappeenranta invested in the theatre project, and will own the premises.
The IsoKristiina shopping centre is directly connected to the adjacent Hotel Lappee with 260 rooms via an indoor corridor between the hotel and the shopping centre and theatre.
“The theatre, hotel and shopping centre form a combination that is in the heart of Citycon´s philosophy of building urban crosspoints. It offers multiple opportunities for theatre travel, meetings and seminars,” Ulla-Maija Kemppi, Citycon’s Commercial Director.
IsoKristiina shopping centre is jointly owned by Citycon and Ilmarinen with equal 50 per cent shares. The investment in the project totaled approximately EUR 110 million.
“We have positioned IsoKristiina as a modern city centre shopping centre. It hosts excellent grocery stores, daily shopping services, a diverse leisure and entertainment offering, and strong specialty shops. In addition, IsoKristiina has an exceptionally wide range of cafés and restaurants; about ten per cent of the shopping centre area is occupied by food & beverage businesses,” Ulla-Maija Kemppi points out.
“It is great to see that our vision of the new IsoKristiina has become reality and the renewed shopping centre is now open for business. In keeping with our responsibility principles, we implemented the project in such a manner that IsoKristiina can apply for a high environmental certification and it is very likely to get it,” says Tomi Aimonen, Head of Real Estate Investments, Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Company.
For further information, please contact:
Ulla-Maija Kemppi, Commercial Director
Telephone +358 40 824 4630
ulla-maija.kemppi@citycon.com
Citycon Oyj (Nasdaq Helsinki: CTY1S) is a leading owner, developer and manager of urban grocery-anchored shopping centres in the Nordic and Baltic regions. The company manages assets that total approximately EUR 5 billion and its shares have a market value of approximately EUR 2 billion. For more information about Citycon, please visit www.citycon.com
Ilmarinen’s task is to ensure that 900,000 people employed in Finland receive the pension they earned from employment. Backed by 550 experts in the field, we help our client companies to succeed and their employees to enjoy their work and spend their retirement in the best possible state of health. Our share of the market amounts to approximately one third and we have investment assets of some EUR 36.4 billion to cover pension liabilities. We are one of the largest real estate investors in Finland with realty assets of EUR 3.5 billion. For more information, please visit: www.ilmarinen.fi.
SOURCE: CITYCON OYJ