Itäkeskus shopping centre

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Itäkeskus shopping centre - Bulevardi

Itäkeskus shopping centre is a shopping centre in the district of Itäkeskus in East Helsinki, Finland. It is the largest covered-in shopping centre in the Nordic countries, with a gross leasable area of 96,300 square metres, nearly 240 different shops (including about 30 restaurants and cafés) and 3000 parking spaces. Located nearby is also the Itäkeskus metro station.

The shopping centre is divided into four sections: Pasaasi, Pikku-Bulevardi, Bulevardi, and Piazza. It has five floors, with the shops and other commercial services mainly concentrated on the first and second floors. The other floors are reserved mainly for parking and office space. The largest shops in the complex are Stockmann, Anttila, and H&M.

The shopping centre was built in three stages. The part now known as Pasaasi was completed in 1984 under the name Itämarket ('eastern market'), complete with the metro station and 41 shops. The new shopping centre proved successful, and an extension with 160 more shops (now Bulevardi and Pikku-Bulevardi) was built by September 1992. Another extension, known as Piazza, was opened in 2001. The following year, the property was sold by its owner Sponda Oyj to the Dutch company Wereldhave NV.

There is also a significantly smaller shopping centre called Itäkeskus in the district of Varissuo, in Turku. It has 30 shops, and is named in the same way as the Helsinki shopping centre due to the fact that it is located at the very eastern edge of the city.