Taru nature house seeks more state agency tenants

Estonia’s Taru nature house is seeking additional state agencies to occupy its new office and museum complex, ERR reports. The first officials are due to move into the building beside Tallinn’s Seaplane Harbour in two weeks.

The complex was planned in 2019 as a wooden museum and office building for the Ministry of the Environment and its agencies. The ministry will not move in, so managers are looking for other tenants. Only state agencies can rent space because the project was funded through a scheme to improve government office space in line with climate goals, Taru manager Riina Roosipuu said.

The building is designed to accommodate about 700 officials and has desks for 570 people. Space remains for nearly 100 more officials, and discussions with prospective tenants are under way. The offices use a shared, activity-based layout, with meeting rooms, kitchens and other facilities shared between organisations, Roosipuu said.

The Land and Spatial Planning Board is due to move in on November 9 from a four-storey office building in Mustamäe. Just over 100 of its staff will occupy one and a half floors. Its head, Kati Tamtik, said the agency’s current building has a traditional office layout, while the new shared workspace will require less room.

The Institute of the Estonian Language is also moving to Taru after seeking a new location because it could not afford to renovate its current building. Its director, Arvi Tavast, said the institute was offered space that became available after another organisation declined it.

The office section is expected to fill with officials in the coming months. The Estonian Museum of Natural History, which will occupy one-third of the complex, is expected to move in last. The complex cost more than 60 million euros to build.