Borenius advised Exilion in the acquisition and hotel conversion of the administrative wing of the Helsinki Central Railway Station

We advised Exilion on the EUR 130 million project where Exilion Asemahotellit Ky, a limited partnership managed by Exilion with pension institutions Elo, VER and Veritas as investors, seeks to acquire the administrative wing of the Helsinki Central Railway Station.

The administrative wing, where the headquarters of the Finnish national railway company (VR) are located, will be converted into a hotel run by Scandic, the largest Nordic hotel operator. The hotel will have almost 500 rooms and be approximately 25,000 square metres in size, making it one of the largest hotels in Finland. VR will vacate the property in the spring of 2018, after which the refurbishment and conversion work will begin. The hotel is expected to open in 2020.

The Helsinki Central Railway Station is one of the most iconic buildings in Finland. It was designed by renowned architect Eliel Saarinen to feature a combination of national romantic and art noveau style, and it was inaugurated in 1919. The railway station was chosen as one of the world’s most beautiful railway stations by the BBC in 2013.

Exilion is a property management company owned by Finnish institutional investors. The aggregate value of the properties under its management amounts to approximately EUR 520 million. The property portfolio comprises office, commercial and hotel properties.