Estonian businessman Urmas Soorumaa buys Tallinn's Patarei complex for EUR 4.6 mln

TALLINN – The Estonian state real estate management company RKAS on Thursday approved Nikolai Esimene OU, a subsidiary of businessman Urmas Soorumaa's U.S. Invest, as the buyer of the Patarei sea fortress the sales price of which turned out to be 4.6 million euros.

The next step is entering into a sales contract with the buyer and the transaction is expected to be completed in January, RKAS said.

The starting price of the public auction was 4.5 million euros. The purpose of the auction was to find a buyer for the Patarei properties who is prepared and able to put in order the sea fortress as an important monument and develop the area as a location and comprehensive environment important for the City of Tallinn and the Kalamaja area.

One bid was filed in the auction of the complex of the Patarei sea fortress, which the auction committee deemed as having met all terms and conditions.

Soorumaa has previously said he is planning to build a modern city center with apartments, stores, cafes and office spaces in the complex and has estimated the investment to be around 100 million euros. He has also not ruled out involving additional investors in the project.

The complex of the sea fortress is located at the addresses 28, 30, 32 Kalaranna Street and 2 Vesilennuki Street. The Patarei sea fortress is subject to the detailed plans of the Patarei and Seaplane Harbor region, whereby the rights and obligations arising therefrom are transferred to the future owner.

U.S. Invest, owned by Soorumaa, founded a separate company, Nikolai Esimene OU, for making the bid. With the name of the new company, Soorumaa referred to Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, who was the one to order the start of the construction of the Patarei sea fortress.

In 1828, Emperor Nicholas I of Russia endorsed a defense plan of Tallinn in accordance with which a coastal defense battery started to be built soon at a location where coastal defense structures from the era of Swedish rule had stood earlier. Construction of the massive building of the Patarei sea fortress started in 1829 and the building was completed by 1840.

Patarei was used as Russian army barracks since 1867 and converted into a prison in 1919, serving in that capacity under different governments and regimes until 2002.