Preses Nama Kvartāls

According to the authors of the project, Preses Nama Kvartāls will be a meta-city that will combine commercial activities and offices with infrastructure for recreation, sports and entertainment.

There will be a multifunctional complex with shopping areas, catering outlets, a fitness club, a spa center, parking, a bicycle repair shop and a children’s playground. A special feature of the building is the first roof soccer field in the Baltics, as well as multifunctional sports fields located there.

The House of the Press Quarter is an important part of one of Riga’s big urban planning ideas: to create a new business center opposite the old city, on the left bank of the Daugava. The multifunctional structure will be filled with educational, cultural, business, residential and public functions. 

More than 200 million euros are to be invested in several phases of the project for the House of the Press neighborhood.

A capsule ceremony was held at the construction site of the new Preses Nama Kvartāls business center: on August 12, 2021, a proclamation describing the history and future hopes and ideas of Riga was laid in the foundation of the buildings for future generations.

Reservations for Class A offices at Preses Nama Kvartāls began in March 2022, offering breathtaking views of Riga’s Old Town and the Ķīpsala panorama. Already this year, the first phase of Preses Nama Kvartāls will be open to tenants and residents. Over 26 000 m² of space is available for rent from 200 m² to 2 400 m² and a multifunctional center.

Layouts and Amenities

The building of the business center will be connected to the multifunctional center with a wide atrium, where there will be a dining area with restaurants and cafes. On the 1st floor of the multifunctional center there will be a commercial zone with various types of services, including a retail store, a fully equipped modern gym and medical points. 

Each floor will offer 2 400 m² of open-plan office space, which can accommodate up to eight tenants.

On the first floor there is a spacious co-working area of 2 000 m². There are also two main entrances, between which there is a spacious restaurant courtyard, eight elevators, two staircases and an information desk with a waiting area. The fifth floor has an 860 m². perimeter terrace around the building where you can enjoy beautiful views of the Freeport and Old Town of Riga. 

On the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors of the building, there will be parking for 1 000 vehicles and 80 short-term parking spaces, as well as charging stations for electric cars: 27 charging stations altogether. Tenants will also be provided with 300 secure bicycle parking spaces in the adjacent Multifunctional Center for State and Municipal Services.

Infrastructure 

The nearby multifunctional center offers a dining area with many restaurants and indoor cafes where you can have lunch or coffee. Preses Nama Kvartāls also offers stores, a fitness center, sports fields and other recreational facilities. 

Employees, guests and business partners have a unique opportunity to walk on the roof of the multifunctional center to enjoy the fresh air and views of the river and Old Riga.

At the heart of the project is the famous historic House of the Press: a 22-story gem of modernist architecture designed by Janis Vilcins. The building was intended for the press: it housed a printing house and the offices of several editorial offices that published magazines and newspapers. It is a symbol of the free press and the desire of Latvian journalists to express their opinions in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The building with a rich history was preserved and reconstructed into a 4-star Holiday Inn hotel with 305 rooms. The hotel will feature a panoramic view of the Daugava and Old Riga. 

The principles of inclusive design will be applied in the block of the House of the Press – the territory will be landscaped without borders, thresholds and steep drops to be accessible to people with low mobility, parents with baby carriages and cyclists. Special parking lots for people with disabilities are designed near the entrances, and the sidewalk is equipped with tactile markings.

“Global trends mark the penetration of nature into the city – we are looking for innovative and unconventional solutions to make the environment greener. We believe that this trend is natural and long-lasting, so we are proud to incorporate this concept into the project to create a neighborhood with universal design. By investing in the improvement of the neighborhood, we believe that this place will become not only the central business district of Riga, but also a popular place for recreation”, says Giedrius Bernotas, representative of Lords LB Special Fund V.

The project has excellent transport links with the rest of the city: the building is easily accessible by public and private transport.

Energy Efficiency

Preses Nama Kvartāls will emphasize energy efficiency, natural materials, a publicly accessible and healthy work environment, and efficient and responsible property management.

The new business district is built on a technological and energy-efficient concept with quality design. It will be a place where the original values of the Print House, one of the first high-rise buildings in Riga, will be complemented with modern opportunities: finding ideas, developing and implementing them.

The bearing structure of the building is located along its perimeter, which creates unlimited possibilities for adapting the office space to the needs of clients. The building of the business center will have 11 floors with flexible layout to accommodate office space for businesses of different sizes.

Thanks to rational design solutions, the nearly zero-energy building (nZEB) provides high energy efficiency and is BREEAM Excellent certified.

Lords LB Special Fund V developed the program for the future of the building. After the company received confirmation from the state administration that all the required conditions had been met, the land was handed over to the developer UPB.

The cost of the contract with UPB was 76.8 million euros.

Project Team

In the summer of 2017, Lithuanian fund Lords LB Special Fund V acquired a 5.8 hectare plot of land from LASCO Investment LLC, a subsidiary of JSC “Latvijas kuģniecība”, where the Print House and printing house are located. The value of the deal was 16.8 million euros.

The design of the Print House quarter was developed by an international team of architects: Arhis arhitekti from Latvia, KSP Jurgen Engel Architekten from Germany, and Arrow Architects from Denmark.