Skanste is a neighbourhood located in the center of Riga, the capital of Latvia. Geographically, the neighborhood is situated in the northern part of the railway ring on the right bank of the Daugava, bordering the Sarkandaugava, Brasa, Centrs, and Pētersala-Andrejsala neighborhoods.
Skanste is considered part of the compact center of Riga. The neighborhood's central traffic artery is Skanstes Street, but the area is delineated by Pulkveža Brieža, Hanzas, Vesetas, and Duntes streets, as well as Ganību dambis, and the railroad.
The area that for decades was allotted for kitchen garden plots, has now been developed to include office towers, sports infrastructure complexes and residential buildings. Next to the historical heart of Riga and its so-called "quiet center", Skanste is developing as a contemporary neighborhood, attractive both to city residents and entrepreneurs and fosters Riga's competitiveness regionally and in the European context. Skanste continues to grow and there are several plans that will be implemented in the coming years.
The Skanste neighborhood takes up measuring by perimeter, and its border is more than six kilometers (4 miles) long. Currently, more than 12,000 people live or work in Skanste, and if large-scale plans for the neighborhood are carried out, these numbers could exceed 42 thousand. On average, the Elektrum Olympic Center and Arena Riga receive 1.9 million visitors a year. When the Metta Youth Football Education Center, a multifunctional private clinic, the Riga Conference, the Concert Center and other projects come to fruition, the annual number of Skanste visitors will grow to 3 million people.
Skanste 2030 In the Riga city development strategy for up to 2030, Skanste has been defined as a priority territory for development with the creation of a central business district, a congress center and a new tram line.
The vision for the Skanste neighborhood is an active development of the center of Riga, its residential and cultural space developed in synergy with its business functions.
The neighborhood has been designated as a priority area for development. Currently, Skanste is the only and largest partially developed territory in the center of the city. The Riga City Council received a letter from the Environmental Protection and Regional Development Ministry with a permission to begin implementing the local planning of the territory.
The Skanste Development Agency document, as well as those for city development, provide for Skanste to fit in well with the compact center of Riga as its most modern part. If, in the historical and "quiet" parts of the center all buildings and infrastructure are historical and all efforts are expent to maintain or renovate the buildings, then Skanste is a free territory in the center of the city where a functioning modern district can be developed.
The Skanste development territory has been included in the spatial nucleus of Riga with a compact type of occupancy. Since most jobs are located in the city center, the development plans include constructing residential buildings as close as possible to this part of the capital.
The other direction of development regards office space. Skanste is a location for international business service centers, representing international enterprises or branches set up for particular functions with competitive salary schemes. 10,000 jobs are scheduled to be created in this sector in the next four years.
Investments in the Skanste neighbourhood
Members of the Skanste Development Agency have already made investments and in the future the amount of investment will continue to grow. The local government plans to develop this neighborhood in synergy with entrepreneurs. Infrastructure will be built by attracting EU money, and entrepreneurs will develop their projects.By 2018, investments in Skanste amounted to €300 million. By 2024, this amount is projected to increase to about €800 million, including building a conference and concert center (with planned annual attendance of ~ 600,000), a multifunctional private clinic (with planned annual attendance of ~ 250,000), developing an internationally oriented innovation and gastronomy quarter 'Sporta 2' and the FS METTA Youth Football Education Center (with planned annual attendance of ~ 150,000), as well as office and residential buildings. The Riga City Council is planning to attract European funding to build the infrastructure, including the much discussed new tram line, which will connect the Skanste neighborhood to the city center: it is expected that the cost for building the tram line will be €100 million, and €7 million for streets and parks.Neatkarīgā Rīta Avīze, 24.07.2017., “Skanstei - arī 100 miljonu Eiropas naudas”
Altogether, it is planned to invest €900 million in the development of the Skanste neighborhood: one of the largest real estate investment objects.
Skanste today
Next to the historical and "quiet" centers, Skanste is developing as the modern part of the capital. The neighborhood that covers over already houses the central offices of several banks, and new apartment and office buildings.
Pillar Offices Pillar is one of the leading real estate companies in Latvia. Pillar develops, manages, rents, and sells all types of real estate: apartment buildings, individual flats, individual houses, and commercial houses primarily in Riga and its surrounding areas and Jūrmala. Pillar's temporary office is the first building finished in New Hanza, the business quarter under development.
kim? Contemporary Art Center kim? Contemporary Art Center was established in 2009. Its name is an abbreviation of the perpetual question “what is art”? For more than nine years, kim? has been one of the leading contemporary art institutions, offering exhibitions, lectures, discussions, publications, and educational programs for various audiences. With its activities kim? tries to support and foster the creative careers of the younger generation artists, theoreticians, curators, translators, and thinkers.
Since 2009, kim? has organized over 150 exhibitions of Latvian and foreign artists and held lectures, seminars, readings, and performances for various interested audiences. Exhibitions and the program of related activities are developed through collaboration with guest curators and other institutions. At the end of 2010, work was begun on a long-term project: creating texts and translations on art theory and criticism, as well as publishing other printed media.
TechHub TechHub Riga is a shared technology generation space, which was established in 2012 with the goal of creating an environment which would help product-oriented startups to grow faster and reach better results. The new businesses choose to work in the same space because that way they can collaborate and share their know-how, as well as benefit from the input of experienced specialists as mentors. Moreover, it is the first place visited by investors who come to Riga looking for technology innovations. TechHub organizes a series of different valuable events, including the monthly Meetup, TechHub Academy, as well as the new technology conference TechChill, the most important in the Baltic countries.
Rietumu Banka AS Rietumu Banka is one of the largest banks in the Baltic region, specializing in servicing large businesses and wealthy individuals. Rietumu Capital Centre, the central offices of AS Rietumu Banka, is one of the most modern business centers in the Baltics, for which the architectural firm Zenico projekts received the Riga Architecture Annual Prize 2010. This multi-storey building is the first A+++ class office complex in Latvia. Rietumu Capital Centre is formed by three interconnected towers of different heights and a multi-level parking garage. The roof of the building has a helicopter pad and a wide terrace with a garden.
Jupiter Centre An A-class business center. A 14-storey building with a two-level parking garage for 160 cars. The building was unveiled in 2012. It is an energy efficient and comfortable business environment. Developer: SIA Development Projects.
Arena Riga Arena Riga was opened in February 2006, attracting thousands of hockey fans for the World Hockey Championship games. It is the largest venue in Riga, popular both among locals and visitors from the neighboring countries. The technical facilities and the team of professionals means that Arena Riga can accommodate any top level event: concerts, shows, performances, hockey, basketball, volleyball, tennis or corporate gatherings. The audience capacity is from 2000 to 13,486: 10,226 for a hockey game, 11,200 for basketball, and 9,857 to 13,486 for social events. Arena Riga has been the venue for All-European sports events (both Men's and Women's European Basketball Championships, Davis Cup in tennis, etc.), as well as concerts by world class musicians: as well as concerts by world class musicians: Depeche Mode, Robbie Williams, Sting, Kylie Minogue, Rihanna, Muse and many others. Arena Riga is the home base for the KHL Dinamo Riga hockey club and the VEF Riga basketball club, which takes part in the VTB league tournament and is a multiple Latvia champion. Where once the Riga race course used to be, now sporting and other kind of events take place. For instance, in 2006 this was the venue for the NATO summit, the annual Lattelecom Riga Marathon participants registered here, and participants in the World Choir Olympics and Latvian Song Festival recently took their brief hours of rest.
The Elektrum Olympic Center was unveiled in 2005; it takes up and has more than 1.3 million visitors per year. In 2017, 3.2 million euro was invested for a large scale reconstruction and modernization, which was completed at the beginning of 2018.
METTA Football School The METTA Football School was established in 2006 to create an infrastructure and versatile football environment for raising educated professionals. Within 10 years, FS METTA has created a system in which over 850 youths, ages 4–18 are active, as well as the adult team FK METTA/Latvijas Universitāte, which plays in the highest Latvian football league. Riga City Council has repeatedly recognized METTA as the "best youth sports organization in Riga", and the Latvian Football Federation has deemed METTA the best Latvian football academy.
Luminor Central Office Luminor is a modern financial service provider in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, combining business savvy with an understanding of the local market and the needs of its clients. On the basis of the experience of two leading Nordic banks, Nordea and DNB. Luminor is the third largest financial service provider in the Baltic countries, with 16% of the market in deposits and 23% in lending. Launching its operations in the Baltics, the Luminor client portfolio includes 1.3 million private individuals and businesses, as well as 3000 employees.
Duntes Nami Duntes Nami is a modern six-storey class-A office building put into operation in 2007 and has been rented out to different businesses. Design: SIA Projektēšanas birojs ARHIS.
Sports Residence The class-A two-storey office building with guarded parking lot was reconstructed in 2011, when the latest security, energy efficiency and climate control systems were installed. The building is characterized by laconic architecture and high quality finish. The LNK Centre main offices used to be located there, but since moving to Jānis Daliņš iela 15, the building is available for commercial renting.
Skanstes Virsotnes Skanstes Virsotnes is one of the most modern residential building complexes in Latvia, consisting of four 24-storey buildings. Design: KVA Architects, Finland; developer and general contractor: construction company Merks, Latvia.
Skanstes Mājas