Finland's national rail company VR announced a year ago that it would move its headquarters out of Helsinki Railway Station, where it has been for about than a century. CEO Mikael Aro says the move is necessary to save money, as the state-owned firm has made major rolling stock investments. Furthermore, the old building, which was completed in 1919, no longer suitable for a modern office.
On Tuesday the new address for the headquarters was unveiled: Yle's main office building, Iso Paja ("the big workshop") in the Pasila district.
The decision to rent out most of the building will benefit both companies, says Yle's Chief Operating Officer, Janne Yli-Äyhö.
"Yle has had a long-term strategy to get rid of extra space and has decided that Iso Paja is the focus of this. When VR announced that they were looking for a new headquarters, this brought both of our interests together."
Yle, founded in 1926, is a relative start-up compared to VR, which dates back to 1862.
Yle's funding has remained at the same level for four years, and the Yle tax that mostly bankrolls it will not rise next year, so the public broadcaster is working to cut costs wherever possible. When Iso Paja was built in 1993, the company had nearly 5,000 employees, whereas it now has just over 3,000.
Traditional state firms sharing space
In early 2017, VR will move 500-1,000 employees from the Railway Station to Iso Paja, where they will fill 3-4 floors of the seven-storey structure. Some Yle functions will remain in the building, but VR will be its main user.
VR hopes to make money by renting out the vacated east wing of the train station, which was designed by leading architect Eliel Saarinen.
Its future use remains up in the air but VR's real estate director suggests that it might be suitable for a hotel. Any changes will have to be approved by the National Board of Antiquities, is it is a protected historic structure.