Citycon and the City of Espoo’s Facility Services have signed a lease agreement for the opening of the Espoonlahti regional library in the shopping centre Lippulaiva in spring 2022. The library will be on the third floor of Lippulaiva and cover a total of about 3,000 sq m. A Service Point of the City of Espoo will also open in the library.
The Espoonlahti regional library will be an innovative and unique library specially designed with the needs of families with children in mind. The library will have a comprehensive children’s and young people’s literature department, kitchen workshop and multi-purpose facility for 200 people that can be used for different events. One speciality of the library will be its own yard area on the southern side of Lippulaiva that is reserved for pedestrian and bicycle traffic. Local residents will participate in the more detailed planning of the library activities so that the library serves its users as comprehensively as possible.
“The Espoonlahti regional library will really compliment the diverse service offering of Lippulaiva. Lippulaiva is not only a shopping centre but the most significant service cluster in the entire Espoonlahti area where the local residents can easily use the services and run multiple errands in one visit. Lippulaiva can be reached easily by car, on foot, by bicycle and by public transport. It is also an important public transport hub, since the new Espoonlahti metro station and the feeder bus terminal are located in the shopping centre,” says Mari Laaksonen, Commercial Director at Citycon.
“At the Espoo City Library, we are thrilled with this addition to our library network. It is great that the people of Espoonlahti will be served by the long-awaited full-service library and its modern facilities,” says Jaana Tyrni, Director of Library Services at the Espoo City Library.
Citycon is currently carrying out a comprehensive redevelopment project for the shopping centre Lippulaiva; the old, demolished shopping centre will be replaced by an entirely new modern and urban shopping centre double the size. The new Lippulaiva will have a total of 44,000 sq m of leasable area and approximately 80 different shops, cafés, restaurants and services. Lippulaiva will focus on a strong grocery and daily shopping service offering that will serve the everyday shopping needs of the growing number of residents in the shopping centre’s catchment area. In addition to the library, the anchor tenants of the shopping centre include shops such as K-Supermarket, Prisma, Lidl and Tokmanni.