The Russian-owned background company of the Helsinki hall should have paid the ground rent for the beginning of the year by the beginning of March.
The hall company of the Helsinki arena has not paid the latest installment of ground rent.
The plot manager of the City of Helsinki Sami Haapanen according to the latest ground rent is due on March 1, but the payment has not been made.
The overdue arrears apply to the entire rent for the beginning of the year from January 1st to March 31st.
Land rent is invoiced annually in four installments. One installment is about 102,000 euros, which means that the land rent per year is currently almost 410,000 euros.
According to Haapanen, the rent level is tied to the development of the cost of living index.
The arena is mainly owned by Russian oligarchs through their companies Gennady Timchenko and Roman Rotenbergwhich are on banned lists.
The rent was also in arrears last summer
This is the second time in a short period of time that the ground rent of the Russian-owned hall has not been paid by the due date.
Mayor Juhana Vartiainen told For Helsingin Sanomat at the end of August, that Helsinki Halli Oy had not paid the land rent due in July at that time.
Vartiainen estimated at the time that the unpaid rent might open up ways to help redeem the hall.
The city does not have a right based on legislation or a land lease agreement to take over the arena company’s shares, if the hall company fulfills its financial obligations.
However, the company paid the rent arrears in question in September.
Helsinki site manager Sami Haapanen tells that after last summer’s arrears, Helsinki Halli Oy paid the entire ground rent for the rest of 2023.
The future of the former Hartwall arena has been a hot topic for a long time.
Evening News said in January that the hall would soon be owned by the Finns, and that the transaction date should have been February 28. However, this did not happen.
MTV reported last week that, despite the long-lasting negotiations, there is still no exact information on when the deals will possibly take place.