Published in: Helsingin Sanomat, 22nd of May, 2004

- 13 000 SQUARE METERS OF SPACE UNDER GROUND AND A STAFF AREA FOR SALE

- The government Senaatti-estates is selling the depot area of the Finnish defence force, which is located in the caves of Kaanavuori in Jyväskylä. The deal will also include the buildings that are located on the ground level.

- This unusual place contains 13 000 square meters of warm office and production facilities, which are build deep inside a rock.  The buildings situated on the ground level, are also for sale and contains for example the staff area, that has a 3 700 square meters of different buildings: barracks, the staff buildings and a mess hall. The area also contains a laboratory building, carpenter's workshop, electronic workshop and a several warehouses. The Finnish defence force moved away from ground level buildings eighteen months ago and in the autumn of 2005, they will also move away from the caves located deep underground and move to the area of Lievestuore depot.

- The price for this unusual place is estimated to be around one million euros. The government Senaatti-estates actually has a 50 different targets, that they would need to find a new use. These places are among the ones that the Finnish defence force doesn’t need anymore. The targets vary from a single buildings to a depot areas, which might contain even a 200 buildings. Some of the targets are sold immediately and perhaps some can be in some use for the local community, but most likely some of the depot areas will be demolished and a forest will be planted to the area.

- Kaanavuori area is an opportunity. It’s near Jyväskylä and the city is growing constantly towards Kaanavuori. The buildings that are on the ground level, most likely will have a many enthusiastic buyers, but the caves can be a bit more difficult targets to sell. Originally the caves were build for the cartridge factory of Lapua in the 1940’s. The depot area was functional in the area for about thirty years and some of this time it was located in the caves with the cartridge factory of Lapua. The cartridge factory was finally shut down in the 1980’s. The main job for the depot, which had a thirty employees, was the maintenance of the gas masks.

- The Kaanavuori area which is located 10 kilometres from Jyväskylä, contains three floors, which are mined inside the Kaanavuori. The caves stretch to area over 14 hectares. This is a really special place says the Sales Manager from the Senaatti-estates. You just need to find an idea for this place. To the first introduction, 12 people showed up and they were really interested about this place. No one really don’t build office space currently and the government has taken a really good care of this place. Most of the people who are interested about this place, are entrepreneurs and a few investors have also asked about the depot area, which the Finnish defence force has now abandoned.