Mainor Ülemiste will start building the first homes in Ülemiste City already this year. The first residential building of the campus – mostly meant for experts arriving from abroad to work in Ülemiste City – is to be completed by 2020.

Margus Nõlvak, Chairman of the Management Board of Mainor Ülemiste, the company developing Ülemiste City, said that building the first homes was of symbolic significance for the hub that so far had only focused on business. „We wanted to be certain that Ülemiste City had all the necessary infrastructure in place – a decent selection of stores and service providers, kindergarten and schools, cafés and restaurants, training facilities and transport connections – before undertaking the development of residential houses. We are ready now,” Nõlvak said.

„The homes to be built here are primarily meant for people coming from abroad to work in Ülemiste City but also for specialists from elsewhere in Estonia,” Nõlvak explained. „Of the 10 000 people working in the hub, an estimated 15% are foreigners and people arriving from further afield, thus rental apartments are a necessary addition already today,” he added.

According to plans the first residential building in Ülemiste City is to go up at Valukoja St. 10. The construction is scheduled to begin this autumn. The 13-storey Lurich Building, named so after the famous Estonian wrestler Georg Lurich, will have 75 apartments for rent, most of them with one, two or three rooms, and one 4-room penthouse. The first residents are expected to move in during the first half of 2020.

The work has already started with demolishing the roof of the Dvigatel workshop, originally built in 1899.The modern Lurich Building will be situated within the old limestone walls. The overhead cranes left from the Soviet era will be preserved and exhibited in the courtyard once the building is completed.