Espoon keskus – urban, evolving growth centre

Espoon keskus has great public transportation connections and is located right next to the railway. Accessibility will be further improved as the Espoo City Rail Link will be constructed by the end of 2029. All city services are within walking distance in Espoon keskus. There are good connections to Nuuksio National Park and its wide range of recreational possibilities.

Located just next to the station, the administrative centre is being developed into a more pleasant environment. Activity plazas, which will serve as venues for presentations, performances or art, are under construction next to the City Council building.

Health care and social welfare services are also available in the area; the Samaria Health Centre provides everyday health services, and Jorvi Hospital and Espoo Hospital are located on the outskirts of Espoon keskus.

Omnia, a joint authority of education and a regional development centre, provides vocational education to some 10,000 students, over half of whom study in Espoon keskus. The Joint Authority of Education in the Espoo Region also consists of Omnia Youth Workshops, Omnia Apprenticeship Training and Inno-Omnia, where artisans, new types of service providers, students and coaches work together.

Espoon keskus will be developed into the most significant city centre of the western metropolitan area. The area will become increasingly urban and more compact through the construction of new residential buildings.

The former administrative centre will be transformed into a diverse city environment.

The Espoontori shopping centre will be extended, and new apartments will be constructed. Wide-scale complementary construction will also create demand for new services.

Another hypermarket is also being planned in Espoon keskus. In the near future, the current S-market will be replaced by a Prisma hypermarket, which will also take up the adjacent empty plot.

The construction of Suviniitty, an important residential neighbourhood, will continue at least until 2027.

The Entresse and Espoontori shopping centres house about 70 speciality shops, a library and the City Archives. Commercial services will be further improved over the next decade. New housing will be constructed in connection with these services.

On the north side of the railway, the city’s administrative buildings will give way to new housing development. A new Espoo House will be constructed in the area. In addition to premises needed by the city, the building will be designed to provide diverse services for residents, a service centre, culture and business facilities and multipurpose facilities that can serve as venues for decision-making and cooperation with the residents. The city will be looking for partners to implement the project.

The City of Espoo organised an architectural competition for the design of the Espoo House. Four working groups were selected to compete. The winner was the Finnish-Danish consortium Cobe + Lundén Architecture Company with their design Kohtaamisia (English: Encounters).  The building is scheduled to be completed in 2029.

Construction is ongoing and will continue with the construction of two apartment buildings and a new parking building. There are two plots of land available for residential construction in the area, and the city is looking for more operators.

Microsoft will build a data centre area in Espoo, providing emission-free district heating for Fortum customers in the capital region. The data centre area is located between Hepokorpi and Tollinmäki residential area, north of Kehä III beltway. Microsoft will build a second data centre in Kirkkonummi.  

Fortum will recycle the waste heat created by the cooling of the data centre’s servers into district heat in Espoo, Kauniainen and Kirkkonummi. This is the world’s largest recovery project for data centre waste heat. 

Read more about the data centre on the Microsoft website(external link, opens in a new window) (in Finnish). 

Located on both sides of the Turunväylä motorway, the Lommila shopping centre and Nimismiehenpelto will be developed. A shopping centre, 110,000 m2 in size, has been planned for Lommila. Grocery shops can take up to 4,000 m2 of the area.