Ideapark

Interior view of the Ideapark

Ideapark seen from the parking lot

Ideapark is a shopping center in the southern Finnish municipality of Lempäälä and the northern Finnish city of Oulu . With around 200 shops on an area of around 100,000 m² in Lempäälä, it is one of the largest shopping centers in the Nordic countries . A tour of the building is 1.2 km long. In addition to the original Ideapark in Lempäälä, which opened in 2006, the main owner, the entrepreneur Toivo Sukari , planned a few more shopping centers of the same name in other locations. But many could not be realized. The second Ideapark opened in Oulu in 2014.

Ideapark Lempäälä

The shopping center is located in the municipality of Lempäälä in southwest Finland, on the motorway between Helsinki and Tampere . Tampere is around 15 km north and Helsinki around 150 km south. The Lempääläs community center is about 6 km southwest of Ideapark. Because Lempäälä itself is a rather small community, the shopping center's customers mainly consist of shopping tourists coming from the motorway, for whom 4000 free parking spaces are available.

In its own advertising, Ideapark is not referred to as a shopping center, but as a "business town". The interior of the building should be reminiscent of a real city, including the “old town” and “central park”. There are around 200 shops, cafes and restaurants, from small boutiques to large department stores. The emphasis is on fashion, leisure and furniture stores, with grocery stores being the smallest. The offer includes both domestic and international brands. In the Ideapark there are, for example, branches of Marimekko , Pentik , Esprit , H&M , Mango , Marc O'Polo , Tommy Hilfiger , The Body Shop and Alko . There is also an amusement park called Fun Park in the building .

The idea for the project came to the entrepreneurs Toivo Sukari and Toni Virkkunen in 2003. Sukari subsequently took on the leading role and financed a large part of the project himself, as no further investors were initially found. According to an article in the Etelä-Suomen Sanomat newspaper in 2007, the construction costs amounted to around 120 million euros. The rental income is 15 million euros a year, the estimated value of the shopping center is 200 million euros.

Sukari originally planned some extensions to attract even more visitors. A swimming pool or spa , an artificial ski tunnel and a 25-story hotel were planned. Construction of the extensions began in 2009 with the excavation of an underground cave for the swimming pool. In September 2010, however, Sukari gave up the plans, not least because he was having trouble finding investors. Sukari then wanted to set up an amusement park with a pirate theme in the already excavated cave. A “retail park” called Areena is planned adjacent to the Ideapark .

Planned further Ideaparks

After the Ideapark opened in Lempäälä, Sukari made similar plans for several other Finnish locations. However, these plans could not be implemented due to financial difficulties and resistance in the approval process.

The plan for an Ideapark in Pieksämäki in Eastern Finland was announced in January 2008. The mall should have been completed in 2010. The copy would have been largely identical to Lempäälä's Ideapark and would have created an estimated 1,000 jobs. In addition to the shopping center, a new bus station and a new train station were to be built in Pieksämäki. A direct train connection from Saint Petersburg to "Ideapark Station" was also planned.

An Ideapark in Kiiminki near Oulu in northern Finland was also planned . Here u. a. a full-size copy of the Titanic will be built. Further Ideaparks were planned for Lapua and Vihti .

controversy

Sukari's expansion plans attracted a lot of attention from the Finnish public and were controversial. While the communities in whose area the new shopping centers would have been built approved the plans because of the jobs and because of the increased tax revenue, the Ideapark concept was also subject to fierce criticism. a. by environmental associations and by the then housing minister Jan Vapaavuori ( collection party ), who played an important role in the Ideapark approval process. According to the critics, the Ideapark is a disproportionate and practically only accessible shopping center "on the green field". First and foremost, it does not serve local demand, but is primarily intended to attract motorists from a very wide area. This is not compatible with the climate protection goals and contributes to the death of business in the actual town centers, which in turn has negative effects on the entire settlement structure of the affected region.

Sukari was also accused of bribing politicians in order to favor them in the approval process. In 2012 he was sentenced by the Helsinki District Court to a suspended sentence of eight months for " gross bribery" (törkeä lahjuksen antaminen) . Sukari immediately announced that he would appeal.

Ideapark Oulu

On October 27, 2014, another Ideapark opened in the Ritaharju district of Oulu. This Ideapark is located on a size of approx. 2.5 hectares. In the first year after opening, there were around 3 million visitors. An extension of the Ideapark is already being built so that the area is approx. 3 hectares and a shop extension of approx. 3000 square meters is being implemented. According to the company, the extension will be completed in April 2016.