The shopping centre, which opened its doors on 19 April, was a unique project for its builders, as such projects have become few and far between in Finland

The construction of the shopping centre started in spring 2015, but the actual planning was commenced way back in 2008. The project made use of Grano’s SokoPro project bank right from the start.

“From our perspective, this has been a huge and lengthy project, the likes of which you are only likely to work on once in a lifetime. Even so, it was primarily carried out based on a traditional procurement model, with contractors chosen based on tendering.” says Project Manager Jarmo Mäkelä from AINS Group.

AINS Group’s duties in the project included commissioning and supervising construction, carrying out structural planning for the project’s repair and new construction, as well as geographic and infrastructure planning. The construction of the shopping centre was commissioned by property investment company Sponda Plc. Ratina is the single largest project that the company has ever carried out.

“Ratina is a unique project: a large shopping centre built in a central spot in the centre of a major city. These types of building projects have become exceedingly rare in Finland.” says Project Manager Rauno Kulmala from Sponda.

A project bank is an essential tool for carrying out projects of this magnitude. It can be used to take care of information exchange between different areas of planning, as well as between planners and those carrying out the work in practice. At the same time, it provides a convenient way to ensure that information about schedules, contracts, deliveries, drawings and site journals stays up to date and accessible.