Oulu is build­ing for the future

Oulu is get­ting pre­pared for its upcom­ing year as Euro­pean Cap­i­tal of Cul­ture in 2026. At the same time, the city is look­ing for­ward to great invest­ments that will devel­op the urban envi­ron­ment, busi­ness, employ­ment, and pos­si­bil­i­ties for tourism in the next few years. These projects involve the City of Oulu along with pri­vate com­pa­nies and oth­er stake­hold­ers.

The most sig­nif­i­cant pub­lic projects near Oulu city cen­tre include a new trav­el cen­tre to replace the exist­ing rail­way and bus sta­tions and a mul­ti-pur­pose sports and events are­na which is being planned right next to the sta­tion com­plex.

The con­struc­tion cost of the new are­na togeth­er with an adjoined hotel and office sec­tion is cur­rent­ly esti­mat­ed at approx­i­mate­ly 130 mil­lion euros. The city is already con­duct­ing mar­ket dia­logue with poten­tial investors and execu­tors.

In com­ing decades, the are­na will pro­vide a first-class set­ting for many kinds of sports events as well as oth­er impor­tant occa­sions from con­certs to con­fer­ences.

When it comes to sports and leisure, anoth­er upcom­ing project is the con­struc­tion of a new foot­ball sta­di­um in Heinäpää, as well as a new cen­tre for recre­ation and tourism in Vir­pinie­mi for local, domes­tic, and inter­na­tion­al use.

As far as tourism is con­cerned, notable projects include the con­struc­tion of new accom­mo­da­tion and ser­vice facil­i­ties in Nal­likari, which is a pop­u­lar resort among inter­na­tion­al vis­i­tors, as well as a tall hotel com­plex at the water­front near the Mar­ket Square, con­ceived under the work­ing title ”Ter­wa Tow­er”.

– These are tru­ly sig­nif­i­cant invest­ments and won­der­ful projects that attract investors and execu­tors. The grow­ing Oulu is regard­ed not only as an appeal­ing loca­tion to invest in but also as an invit­ing and safe place for liv­ing and doing busi­ness. The City of Oulu as a facil­i­ta­tor cre­ates the pos­si­bil­i­ties for all these projects and invest­ments to become a real­i­ty, says Marko Kilpeläi­nen, Head of the Urban Envi­ron­ment Divi­sion for the City of Oulu.

Mas­sive invest­ments in indus­try

Major projects in the fields of tech­nol­o­gy and indus­try will also cre­ate more vital­i­ty and employ­ment in Oulu in the near future. Projects sched­uled for con­struc­tion and com­ple­tion in the next few years include a new Nokia cam­pus and a new pro­duc­tion line to be built at the Sto­ra Enso paper mill.

Due to be com­plet­ed in a cou­ple of years, the new Nokia cam­pus will be hous­ing the company’s research and devel­op­ment func­tions in Oulu as well as the pro­duc­tion of Nokia net­work devices. The total indoor space in the cam­pus premis­es will add up to 55 000 square metres and the con­struc­tion costs will exceed 200 mil­lion euros.

Esti­mat­ed at around one bil­lion euros, the invest­ment by Sto­ra Enso will con­vert the remain­ing, idle paper machine at the Group’s Nuot­tasaari mill in Oulu into a high-vol­ume con­sumer board pro­duc­tion line. The pro­duc­tion pf prod­ucts is esti­mat­ed to com­mence in ear­ly 2025 and bring at least 300 new jobs along with it.

– The big invest­ments that are cur­rent­ly being exe­cut­ed ensure the devel­op­ment of Oulu in the com­ing decades. They increase the num­ber of direct and indi­rect jobs sig­nif­i­cant­ly, guar­an­tee the suc­cess of exist­ing com­pa­nies, and allow entry of new oper­a­tors into the area. What is more, region­al logis­ti­cal deci­sions con­cern­ing the rail­way as well as road and sea traf­fic will boost the com­pet­i­tive­ness of north­ern Fin­land as a whole, envi­sions Juha Ala-Mur­su­la, Direc­tor of Business­Oulu, a pub­lic busi­ness and employ­ment agency of the City of Oulu.

First-class health care and hous­ing

The con­struc­tion of ”the smartest hos­pi­tal in the world” in Oulu has pro­gressed even ahead of sched­ule, and some of the gigan­tic com­plex aris­ing rapid­ly in the city dis­trict of Kon­tinkan­gas has already been deliv­ered to the com­mis­sion­er.

The total cost of the OYS 2030 pro­gramme has been esti­mat­ed at approx­i­mate­ly 1.6 bil­lion euros. With this invest­ment, the func­tions and facil­i­ties of Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty Hos­pi­tal will be reformed to meet the future chal­lenges of spe­cialised health care.

Just before tak­ing over the title of Euro­pean Cap­i­tal of Cul­ture, Oulu will host the nation­al, annu­al Hous­ing Fair in 2025. Locat­ed in Har­taanselkä, the fair area will become a high-class urban envi­ron­ment that pro­motes sus­tain­able devel­op­ment and com­mu­nal­i­ty. The aim is to turn the area into a pop­u­lar des­ti­na­tion for vis­i­tors, an exam­ple of a high­er grade of city liv­ing, and a delight to all the peo­ple of Oulu.

In addi­tion to these con­struc­tion projects worth bil­lions of euros, one of the means of improv­ing the vital­i­ty and appeal of Oulu in the future is to devel­op the air traf­fic to and from the city. Nego­ti­a­tions with for­eign air­line com­pa­nies are con­stant­ly under­way to open new inter­na­tion­al con­nec­tions to the sec­ond busiest air­port in Fin­land.

Read more Oulu’s excel­lent oppor­tu­ni­ties for sus­tain­able invest­ments.