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EfTEN to build a new gardening centre for Hortes in Tallinn’s Tähesaju City
Hortes AS, Estonia’s leading home and garden retail brand, will be the tenant of a new garden centre that EfTEN Real Estate Fund III AS is to build in Tähesaju City in the Lasnamäe district of Tallinn, under an agreement that has been signed by EfTEN and Hortes. The main contractor for the construction project is Mitt & Perlebach OÜ. The gardening centre will open its doors in the spring of 2019.
EfTEN Real Estate Fund III, which is listed on the Baltic Main List of the Nasdaq Baltic securities exchange, will invest more than 5.5 million euros overall in the construction of the gardening centre thorough the subsidiary EfTEN Tähesaju tee OÜ.
According to Viljar Arakas, a member of the board of EfTEN Real Estate Fund III, the agreement with the main contractor has been signed, the construction site has been fenced in and soon the ground works will begin. “We are glad for the opportunity to build a second gardening centre for Hortes in our capital city that will certainly attract new customers to Hortes. The Tähesaju City commercial area is conveniently located also for a large part of Tallinn’s metropolitan area,” said Arakas.
Hortes is owned and operated by pan-Baltic private equity firm Livonia Partners. According to Kristīne Bērziņa, a founding partner at Livonia, the opening of a new gardening centre in Lasnamäe is good news not just for people in Lasnamäe itself, but also for those living in nearby areas such as Pirita and Viimsi. “As one of the best retail concepts to come out of Estonia, Hortes has proven itself and we are ready to expand the business further. Next spring everyone living on the east side of Tallinn will be able to do their shopping a lot closer to home,” Bērziņa said.
Earlier this year EfTEN Real Estate Fund III acquired the original Hortes garden-centre property in the Laagri district of Tallinn, from AS Hortes, in a sale-and-leaseback transaction. Livonia Partners said that sale was a key step to convert Hortes into an asset-light operation prior to more active expansion.