Home NEWS Tallinn’s Linnahall project set to go ahead

Tallinn’s Linnahall project set to go ahead

May 17, 2021

linnahall_tallinn — Photo Credit: Georg Svidlov

Relying on the position of the European Commission, Tallinn City Government will shortly launch an action plan on how to proceed with the renovation of the Tallinn Linnahall and its surroundings. The European Commission found in its preliminary state aid assessment that there to be no conflicts between making investments according to the Linnahall business plan and the rules on state aid.

In 2017, a detailed spatial plan for the Tallinn Linnahall and the surrounding area was established, which enables the construction of the Linnahall and its surrounding area as a culture and conference centre. Also in 2017, the terms of reference for designing the Linnahall were completed. The process then came to a halt as the need to go through state aid procedures became clear. In April 2018, the Tallinn City Office submitted a preliminary State aid notification to the European Commission to ask whether the State aid rules apply to making investments in the Linnahall from public funds.

“This is, of course, good news for Tallinn, which will allow us to review previous action plans and move forward with the preparations of terms of reference for the Linnahall design project. Renovating the Linnahall and its surroundings remains a priority for us. We want to restore the concert hall and create a modern international conference centre. One of the goals is to open the seaside area to the citizens,” said Mayor Mihhail Kõlvart.

According to the mayor, market research will also be conducted to find out the possibilities for finding private sector partners and co-financing. “We are pleased that we continued the state aid authorization procedure even after concluding a cooperation agreement with the private companies Tallink and Infortar. When starting the cooperation, none of us anticipated the COVID-19 pandemic, let alone its effects on the tourism sector, which unfortunately no longer supports the implementation of this cooperation agreement. In the case of such large projects, the backup options are always reasonable, therefore we are still considering different possibilities,” said Kõlvart.

According to Kõlvart, various possibilities must be sought for renovating the Linnahall, because the perspective of Tallinn Hospital and the volume of investment by the city is not clear. “We have to evaluate all major city projects in the light of the city budget, and also take into account other major projects. For every large project, we need to examine how to find additional sources of financing, if necessary,” said Kõlvart.

mihhail_kolvart — Photo Credit: Mayors of Europe

Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, the winner of the Academy Award (Oscar) for Best Visual Effects, was filmed in seven different countries around the world, including Estonia. Linnahall’s brutalist style and impressive size served as the perfect location for the movie’s intense opening scene.

The Tallinn Linnahall was designed and built from 1975-1980. The building was completed in time for the 1980 Summer Olympics. The Linnahall was closed in December 2009. In 2016, an examination was performed on the building, which found that the structure is in relatively good condition but the dolomite outer lining is in poor state.

The building area of the Linnahall is 39,422 square metres, the net floor area is 37,221 square metres, and the building has three top-ground and two underground floors.