Otto Virenius, Property Development Manager

Developer on new urban districts

At its best, my job is very cross-disciplinary, as I sit down at the same drawing board with architects, engineers and various authorities. The bar is high, as decisions to develop new residential districts affect the lives of tens of thousands of people.

What particularly interests you in your job?

My job includes the development and sale of various buildings and land that are being phased out of government use. These are mostly former Finnish Defence Forces sites, such as the former garrison sites of Hennala in Lahti, Hyrylä in Tuusula and Heikkilä in Turku.

Going forward, these areas will provide homes for over 10,000 people. The kind of areas to be built and to what timeline they will be developed will really affect the lives of many people in Finland. This makes my work particularly interesting and sets the bar high.

My areas are Turku and Tuusula, as well as a few sites in Helsinki. One of the interesting ones is a rare undeveloped plot on the banks of the Aurajoki river in Turku, which goes by the working name Herkules, and where a high-quality residential block is planned.

Apart from a few exceptions, we at Senate Properties only prepare and develop detailed plans. This means that we do not build houses for sale ourselves, but together with the municipality and possibly the buyer, we design a local detailed plan for the area and then sell plots that can be built to future builders.

Who do you work with?

My job is very diverse and quite cross-disciplinary, as I get to work with experts from many different organisations. This broad group includes municipal planners and plot departments employees, architects, engineers, commercial and technical consultants in the real estate sector, and various authorities, such as the Finnish Heritage Agency.

Which project has particularly stuck in your mind?

At the moment, the most interesting projects are the completely new city districts that I’m developing, namely Rykmentinpuisto in Tuusula and Pihlajaniemi in Turku. Pihlajaniemi is special because I was able to start developing it from the very beginning, from the ideation stage, and the area is now already under construction. Pihlajaniemi is evolving into a beautiful, human-scale and green city district for up to 7,000 residents.

3 principles that guide your work?

• Solutions centric.
• I always try to get the best people around me for each purpose, because that’s usually how to get the best results.
• Positivity.

About me

I joined Senate as Property Development Manager in August 2018. I graduated with a Master of Science (Technology) from Aalto University in 2014 having majored in real estate management.

Before then, I was a project manager in the City of Helsinki Real estate department, the Regional construction department and the City Executive Office. I’ve also worked as a project engineer in a company known as Ahma-Insinöörit.