The Turn of
the Tide?
by Nora Soo
The urban fringe of Paljassaare has been the backyard of the city: facilities like waste treatment, hazardous production sites, loud repair shops, and stigmatized social housing are located here. The more recent developments reshaping the image of Paljassaare have been the opening of the Pikakari beach (2006) at the tip of the peninsula and the Natura 2000 bird sanctuary (2005) in the north-western part. This gradual transition from ex-military industrial wasteland to a recreational resort of Tallinn has been making way for the development of a residential area as well.
Due to the land restitution program after the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, most of the land in Estonia is privately owned. Therefore, urban (re)development is mostly practiced plot by plot. During the Soviet regime, the main urban developer was the public sector but today, public institutions have taken the role of merely serving the private sector that now controls the development of Tallinn (Feldman, 2000). The “unused potential” of urban hinterlands has attracted a myriad of real estate developers to Paljassaare over the past 30 years but none of these projects have materialized. Its potential, however, has never lost its lure. What is the paradox of Paljassaare that hinders the developers? The answer to this question is manifold.
Paljassaare is located in the Northern Tallinn district that has historically been a home for lower-income residents of Tallinn. The area is characterized by its vast industrial space and wooden apartment houses for blue-collar workers. The district, especially Kopli and Kalamaja areas, have been on the course of transformation to a highly valued residential area over the past 15 years, socially and physically displacing the residents that have been living there before.
Coastal areas have acquired a sense of prestige and have become highly desired locations for real estate development all around the world. Because Estonian coastal areas were restricted areas by the military during the soviet regime and have remained relatively undeveloped the past 30 years. With the transition from socialist order to neo-liberal market system, the coastline of Estonia has become available and great plans are projected for it. Moreover, deteriorating industrial space on the coastline is particularly desirable because the land there is cheap. Through redevelopment, the value of the land increases exponentially, making it perfect for capital growth— ‘wasteland’ is turned into ‘dreamland’.
Empirical research done in the studio provided a starting point for interpreting the issues of real estate development in Tallinn through the lens of Paljassaare. Mainstream media, investigative journalism, maps, audio, video archives, and development policies and strategies were examined to compose an overview of the situation in Paljassaare. The most interesting findings emerged from interviews with the owner of the former hotel Ocean, a representative of contemporary large-scale urban development Wolfscape, and a second-hand shop owner based in Paljassaare tee 40.
Clandestine Affairs and Various Speculations
During the Soviet regime, a state-managed company called Estrõbprom, based in Paljassaare harbor, was an important supplier of fish goods all over the Soviet Union. After the fall of the Soviet regime, in 1991, Estrõbprom was declared property of the Republic of Estonia, from which RAS Ocean (RAS Ookean) was founded in 1992 (Palmaru, 1997).
RAS Ocean became notorious for its 500 million kroons debt, over 50 ocean vessels disappearing into thin air, and about 100 million US dollars of RAS Ocean funds missing from banks in Russia. On top of all this, the deputy CEO who discovered the company’s shady legal matters committed suicide (Ibid.).
In 1995, RAS Ocean was declared bankrupt and Hotel Ocean, an asset of the company, was put on auction. Many attempts to sell the hotel failed due to lack of interest but in 1996, unexpectedly, a young man came forward and won the auction. To this day, the hotel is still owned by this man (the owner of hotel Ocean, 2021).
The Mayhem of Hotel Ocean
Hotel Ocean, today standing empty beside Paljassaare road, sealed and closed off, was once a busy establishment with a wide array of customers and a temporary home for many. Over the past 30 years it has been subjected to legal disputes, neglect from the owner, and indifference from the municipality.
Before the hotel was sold to the highest bidder, the city had been using it to house people in need. Along with the hotel, the new landowner inherited the tenancy agreements, due to which he found himself in a difficult position as many tenants could not pay rent. He made efforts to replace the expensive heating system with a more affordable one, but the banks would not issue a loan in such circumstances. One by one the tenants moved out of the hotel due to numerous conflicts with the landowner and the city officials, leaving the hotel finally empty by the early 2000s (the owner of hotel Ocean, 2021).
The hibernating hotel Ocean has witnessed the rise and fall of many real estate developments in Paljassaare. Nothing seems to stick here.
The Other Hotel
In the late 1980s, hotel Kalur was added as an annex to the hotel Ocean building. Unlike in the case of hotel Ocean, the city managed to buy the building of hotel Kalur and convert it to social housing. In 2018, the building was renovated to increase the well-being of the residents who have social and economic difficulties.
One of the impeding factors contributing to the slow development of Paljassaare may be due to the high concentration of social services there. In addition to the social housing, a rehabilitation center for drug and alcohol addicts, a home for people with disability, and a women’s shelter are located in Paljassaare. Social housing is generally located in distant areas of the city or in neighborhoods already suffering from socio-economic segregation. This creates additional isolation and marginalizes the deprived even more, thus contributing to the stigmatization of social housing. As multiple plots in Paljassare were city-owned plots the area it was convenient to locate social housing there. The area was regarded as a hinterland totally isolated from the rest of the city. The high concentration of social services in the area has held back developments because single plot projects could not increase the area’s overall attractiveness.
Private Developers, Welcome!
Port of Tallinn (AS Tallinna Sadam), a state-owned company, was interested in developing real estate in Paljassaare already in 1999 since they did not see any prospect in maintaining a harbor there. Unfortunately, a consensus with the city government was never reached and Port of Tallinn sold their land to businessmen who miraculously received city approval to pursue their residential development plans (Soe, 2007).
Situated on the former Port of Tallinn land, Wolfscape development has gathered different landowners under one company with the aim of developing the first climate-neutral district in Estonia. The developers have taken an evidence-based approach and do not wish to make any final decisions unless it is backed up with data (Wolfscape representative, 2021). Wolfscape is sharing their research and collaborating with the city to develop an affordable housing system to be implemented in the development. When asked to comment on the affordability of the proposed new urban center an example was provided, “if a highly skilled school teacher would like to live there, she should be able to (Ibid).”
The developers of Wolfscape are using a rather novel strategy in Estonian urban planning practice by uniting landowners under one company and working closely with the city, experts, and presumably locals. Along with their flagship goal of sustainability, they want to target the issues of governance, segregation, and affordability. The Wolfscape development is included in the General Plan of Northern Tallinn and it aligns with the goals described in the Tallinn 2035 Development Strategy, like creative city, green transformation, and friendly urban space (Tallinn 2035 Development Strategy). The desire of the development is to ensure their business interest with a bulletproof plan accepted by all stakeholders.
“The Wolfscape development is a promising one,” commented the owner of hotel Ocean. As the new development is in close proximity to the hotel, the owner feels hopeful about the future it may bring for the hotel as well. “I’ve had many proposals for selling the property, but I’ve turned them all down. If Wolfscape is executed, there will be profitable outcomes for me as well, for instance, I could reopen the hotel or rent it out to a tech firm,” he explains.
Site-Specific Installation: The Variety of Affairs in Paljassaare
My contribution, the installation ``The Turn of the Tide?” attempts to unravel the obstacles of urban development in Paljassaare by examining the history of the hotel Ocean building and its surroundings, the key players, and an endless array of proposed real estate development projects of the last decades. The installation consists of extractions of articles, contemporary development plans, and interviews with landowners, tenants, and developers. Just like the development plans in Paljassaare, the posters prepared for the installation refused to stick to the walls of hotel Ocean. Is this another case of the Paljassaare paradox?
Due to the land restitution program after the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, most of the land in Estonia is privately owned. Therefore, urban (re)development is mostly practiced plot by plot. During the Soviet regime, the main urban developer was the public sector but today, public institutions have taken the role of merely serving the private sector that now controls the development of Tallinn (Feldman, 2000). The “unused potential” of urban hinterlands has attracted a myriad of real estate developers to Paljassaare over the past 30 years but none of these projects have materialized. Its potential, however, has never lost its lure. What is the paradox of Paljassaare that hinders the developers? The answer to this question is manifold.
Paljassaare is located in the Northern Tallinn district that has historically been a home for lower-income residents of Tallinn. The area is characterized by its vast industrial space and wooden apartment houses for blue-collar workers. The district, especially Kopli and Kalamaja areas, have been on the course of transformation to a highly valued residential area over the past 15 years, socially and physically displacing the residents that have been living there before.
Coastal areas have acquired a sense of prestige and have become highly desired locations for real estate development all around the world. Because Estonian coastal areas were restricted areas by the military during the soviet regime and have remained relatively undeveloped the past 30 years. With the transition from socialist order to neo-liberal market system, the coastline of Estonia has become available and great plans are projected for it. Moreover, deteriorating industrial space on the coastline is particularly desirable because the land there is cheap. Through redevelopment, the value of the land increases exponentially, making it perfect for capital growth— ‘wasteland’ is turned into ‘dreamland’.
Empirical research done in the studio provided a starting point for interpreting the issues of real estate development in Tallinn through the lens of Paljassaare. Mainstream media, investigative journalism, maps, audio, video archives, and development policies and strategies were examined to compose an overview of the situation in Paljassaare. The most interesting findings emerged from interviews with the owner of the former hotel Ocean, a representative of contemporary large-scale urban development Wolfscape, and a second-hand shop owner based in Paljassaare tee 40.
Clandestine Affairs and Various Speculations
During the Soviet regime, a state-managed company called Estrõbprom, based in Paljassaare harbor, was an important supplier of fish goods all over the Soviet Union. After the fall of the Soviet regime, in 1991, Estrõbprom was declared property of the Republic of Estonia, from which RAS Ocean (RAS Ookean) was founded in 1992 (Palmaru, 1997).
RAS Ocean became notorious for its 500 million kroons debt, over 50 ocean vessels disappearing into thin air, and about 100 million US dollars of RAS Ocean funds missing from banks in Russia. On top of all this, the deputy CEO who discovered the company’s shady legal matters committed suicide (Ibid.).
In 1995, RAS Ocean was declared bankrupt and Hotel Ocean, an asset of the company, was put on auction. Many attempts to sell the hotel failed due to lack of interest but in 1996, unexpectedly, a young man came forward and won the auction. To this day, the hotel is still owned by this man (the owner of hotel Ocean, 2021).
The Mayhem of Hotel Ocean
Hotel Ocean, today standing empty beside Paljassaare road, sealed and closed off, was once a busy establishment with a wide array of customers and a temporary home for many. Over the past 30 years it has been subjected to legal disputes, neglect from the owner, and indifference from the municipality.
Before the hotel was sold to the highest bidder, the city had been using it to house people in need. Along with the hotel, the new landowner inherited the tenancy agreements, due to which he found himself in a difficult position as many tenants could not pay rent. He made efforts to replace the expensive heating system with a more affordable one, but the banks would not issue a loan in such circumstances. One by one the tenants moved out of the hotel due to numerous conflicts with the landowner and the city officials, leaving the hotel finally empty by the early 2000s (the owner of hotel Ocean, 2021).
The hibernating hotel Ocean has witnessed the rise and fall of many real estate developments in Paljassaare. Nothing seems to stick here.
The Other Hotel
In the late 1980s, hotel Kalur was added as an annex to the hotel Ocean building. Unlike in the case of hotel Ocean, the city managed to buy the building of hotel Kalur and convert it to social housing. In 2018, the building was renovated to increase the well-being of the residents who have social and economic difficulties.
One of the impeding factors contributing to the slow development of Paljassaare may be due to the high concentration of social services there. In addition to the social housing, a rehabilitation center for drug and alcohol addicts, a home for people with disability, and a women’s shelter are located in Paljassaare. Social housing is generally located in distant areas of the city or in neighborhoods already suffering from socio-economic segregation. This creates additional isolation and marginalizes the deprived even more, thus contributing to the stigmatization of social housing. As multiple plots in Paljassare were city-owned plots the area it was convenient to locate social housing there. The area was regarded as a hinterland totally isolated from the rest of the city. The high concentration of social services in the area has held back developments because single plot projects could not increase the area’s overall attractiveness.
Private Developers, Welcome!
Port of Tallinn (AS Tallinna Sadam), a state-owned company, was interested in developing real estate in Paljassaare already in 1999 since they did not see any prospect in maintaining a harbor there. Unfortunately, a consensus with the city government was never reached and Port of Tallinn sold their land to businessmen who miraculously received city approval to pursue their residential development plans (Soe, 2007).
Situated on the former Port of Tallinn land, Wolfscape development has gathered different landowners under one company with the aim of developing the first climate-neutral district in Estonia. The developers have taken an evidence-based approach and do not wish to make any final decisions unless it is backed up with data (Wolfscape representative, 2021). Wolfscape is sharing their research and collaborating with the city to develop an affordable housing system to be implemented in the development. When asked to comment on the affordability of the proposed new urban center an example was provided, “if a highly skilled school teacher would like to live there, she should be able to (Ibid).”
The developers of Wolfscape are using a rather novel strategy in Estonian urban planning practice by uniting landowners under one company and working closely with the city, experts, and presumably locals. Along with their flagship goal of sustainability, they want to target the issues of governance, segregation, and affordability. The Wolfscape development is included in the General Plan of Northern Tallinn and it aligns with the goals described in the Tallinn 2035 Development Strategy, like creative city, green transformation, and friendly urban space (Tallinn 2035 Development Strategy). The desire of the development is to ensure their business interest with a bulletproof plan accepted by all stakeholders.
“The Wolfscape development is a promising one,” commented the owner of hotel Ocean. As the new development is in close proximity to the hotel, the owner feels hopeful about the future it may bring for the hotel as well. “I’ve had many proposals for selling the property, but I’ve turned them all down. If Wolfscape is executed, there will be profitable outcomes for me as well, for instance, I could reopen the hotel or rent it out to a tech firm,” he explains.
Site-Specific Installation: The Variety of Affairs in Paljassaare
My contribution, the installation ``The Turn of the Tide?” attempts to unravel the obstacles of urban development in Paljassaare by examining the history of the hotel Ocean building and its surroundings, the key players, and an endless array of proposed real estate development projects of the last decades. The installation consists of extractions of articles, contemporary development plans, and interviews with landowners, tenants, and developers. Just like the development plans in Paljassaare, the posters prepared for the installation refused to stick to the walls of hotel Ocean. Is this another case of the Paljassaare paradox?
The luring potential of Paljassaare makes it a battlefield among real estate developers. It is a perfect site for urban expansion with a profitable outlook, only 10 minutes away from the city center. The success of a development plan should be determined by social, political, and economic factors, but in its essence, it boils down to human relationships, communication, and personal creed.
The course of the land restitution process in Tallinn demonstrates that “space is not an external category, outside human subjectivity, but an internalized experience inseparable from contemporary social relations (Feldman, 1999).”, which also illustrates the power struggles in Paljassaare. During the interviews with the hotel Ocean owner, it was revealed that bitter relationships between developers and the city stem from personal desires and agendas in the hope of making a great profit by redeveloping the peninsula.
A new urban development in Paljassaare including residential areas, Wolfscape, is set to transform the supposedly outdated industrial landscape into a sustainable coastal residential district, bringing the long-awaited turn of the tide in the development of the peninsula. After all, “what constitutes a desirable landscape is not static, neither in its physical form nor in the type of sociality it engenders (Rosa, 2016).” It can be argued that the Wolfscape development can affect Paljassaare the same way gentrification has affected Kopli and Kalamaja. For instance, the opening of Pikakari beach is a good example of how to make the area more appealing to a wider audience. The high concentration of social services and housing in Paljassaare has been viewed as a problem rather than an opportunity for creating a cohesive urban environment.
As Wolfscape plans to incorporate affordable housing in their project, is it then possible that the stigma of social housing can be overcome? Some criticism should still be maintained towards the Wolfscape project. Affordable housing in this project is likely to manifest in subsidized rent that tends to be accessible to people with higher social/cultural capital. Therefore, the inclusion of people with lower socio-economic status cannot be achieved to the full extent. As a result, the existing social support infrastructure in Paljassaare will remain isolated.
References
Feldman, M. (1999). Justice in Space? The restitution of property rights in Tallinn, Estonia. Cultural Geographies, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 165-182. SAGE Publications.
Feldman, M. (2000). Urban Waterfront Regeneration and Local Governance in Tallinn. Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 52, No. 5, pp. 829-850. Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
Rosa, B. (2016). Waste and value in urban transformation: Reflections on a post-industrial ‘wasteland’ in Manchester. Global Garbage: Urban imaginaries of waste, excess, and abandonment, pp. 181-261. Routledge.
Palmaru, R. (1997). Miljonid uppusid Ookeani. Õhtuleht. https://www.ohtuleht.ee/1935/miljonid-uppusid-ookeani
Soe, R-M. (2007). Tallinna Manhattan Paljassaare sadamasse. Äripäev. https://www.aripaev.ee/uudised/2007/05/17/tallinna-manhattan-paljassaare-sadamasse
Tallinn City Government. Tallinn 2035 Development Plan. (2020).
The owner of hotel Ocean in discussion with the author. (2021).
A representative of Wolfscape development in discussion with the author. (2021).
The course of the land restitution process in Tallinn demonstrates that “space is not an external category, outside human subjectivity, but an internalized experience inseparable from contemporary social relations (Feldman, 1999).”, which also illustrates the power struggles in Paljassaare. During the interviews with the hotel Ocean owner, it was revealed that bitter relationships between developers and the city stem from personal desires and agendas in the hope of making a great profit by redeveloping the peninsula.
A new urban development in Paljassaare including residential areas, Wolfscape, is set to transform the supposedly outdated industrial landscape into a sustainable coastal residential district, bringing the long-awaited turn of the tide in the development of the peninsula. After all, “what constitutes a desirable landscape is not static, neither in its physical form nor in the type of sociality it engenders (Rosa, 2016).” It can be argued that the Wolfscape development can affect Paljassaare the same way gentrification has affected Kopli and Kalamaja. For instance, the opening of Pikakari beach is a good example of how to make the area more appealing to a wider audience. The high concentration of social services and housing in Paljassaare has been viewed as a problem rather than an opportunity for creating a cohesive urban environment.
As Wolfscape plans to incorporate affordable housing in their project, is it then possible that the stigma of social housing can be overcome? Some criticism should still be maintained towards the Wolfscape project. Affordable housing in this project is likely to manifest in subsidized rent that tends to be accessible to people with higher social/cultural capital. Therefore, the inclusion of people with lower socio-economic status cannot be achieved to the full extent. As a result, the existing social support infrastructure in Paljassaare will remain isolated.
References
Feldman, M. (1999). Justice in Space? The restitution of property rights in Tallinn, Estonia. Cultural Geographies, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 165-182. SAGE Publications.
Feldman, M. (2000). Urban Waterfront Regeneration and Local Governance in Tallinn. Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 52, No. 5, pp. 829-850. Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
Rosa, B. (2016). Waste and value in urban transformation: Reflections on a post-industrial ‘wasteland’ in Manchester. Global Garbage: Urban imaginaries of waste, excess, and abandonment, pp. 181-261. Routledge.
Palmaru, R. (1997). Miljonid uppusid Ookeani. Õhtuleht. https://www.ohtuleht.ee/1935/miljonid-uppusid-ookeani
Soe, R-M. (2007). Tallinna Manhattan Paljassaare sadamasse. Äripäev. https://www.aripaev.ee/uudised/2007/05/17/tallinna-manhattan-paljassaare-sadamasse
Tallinn City Government. Tallinn 2035 Development Plan. (2020).
The owner of hotel Ocean in discussion with the author. (2021).
A representative of Wolfscape development in discussion with the author. (2021).
