Helsinki approves demolition of Vuosaari shopping centre

Helsinki City Board has approved the demolition of Vuosaari’s northern shopping centre and plans to replace it with four apartment buildings, Yle reports. The project will add about 300 residents to the area.

The shopping centre, completed in 1965, has deteriorated and lost tenants. Its repair backlog is estimated at more than 4.6 million euros.

The new six- to seven-storey buildings will include commercial premises on their ground floors. However, the redevelopment will reduce the area’s total commercial floor space by about 3,500 square metres, roughly the size of a large supermarket or half a football pitch.

Eero Hildén, chair of the Vuosaari Committee, a cooperation and information-sharing forum for local organisations, elected representatives and city officials, said it was sad to see the 1960s shopping centre complex disappear.

Hildén said he understood that preserving the shopping centre was no longer possible, but considered the amount of replacement commercial space too small for local needs.

He was particularly concerned about the loss of Stadin yhteisötalo, a community centre that provided help with computers and phones, advice and a place to talk. No replacement space is planned immediately.

According to Hildén, the city has only discussed establishing a residents’ centre in Meri-Rastila in the 2030s. He said this would do little for northern Vuosaari, where distances are long and many elderly and mobility-impaired residents want services close to home.

The demolition marks the end of an era for Vuosaari. When the district was developed in the 1960s, it had three shopping centres, despite having only a fifth of its current population. The southern shopping centre and the smaller shopping centre known as Vuosaari were demolished in the early 2000s.

The northern shopping centre is the latest example of a decades-long trend in which 1960s shopping centres are replaced by apartment buildings with commercial premises on the ground floor. Similar redevelopments have taken place in Maunula, Myllypuro, Kannelmäki and, most recently, Puotila.