The international financier of the giant Kivistö arena still remains a secret

The Vantaa City Board will convene an extraordinary meeting on Thursday, as insufficient information was received about international funding last week.

The financing of the Arena 3.3 giant arena planned for Kivistö in Vantaa remains secret.

The city council will hold an extraordinary meeting on Thursday to learn more about international funding.

The main owners of the private 200 million euro project are Pepe Perkiö and Jouko Harjunpää.

Mayor Pekka Timonen confirms that this is international funding, but more detailed information is available from the project leaders.

The financing structure for the giant arena, Arena 3.3, planned for Kivistö in Vantaa is known to only a few people. The Vantaa City Council was not informed about it at last week’s meeting either – that’s why a new meeting will be held on Thursday this week.

“The financing arrangement is still in progress, so we decided to continue when we receive more information. That will be this week,” says Vantaa Mayor Pekka Timonen.

Arena 3.3 is a private project, the main owners of which are Pepe Perkiö and Jouko Harjunpää. The estimated cost is 200 million euros. In addition to the 20,000-seat multi-purpose arena, Kivistö would also include a hotel and a parking garage.

At last week’s meeting, the Vantaa City Board discussed the arena at length. The land use studies and the urban design solution meet the city’s requirements, but the approval of the land lease agreement and the preliminary real estate purchase agreement were postponed to Thursday’s meeting.

The new chairwoman of the city council, Ulla Kaukola (SD), also justifies the new meeting by saying that the new city council was only elected on Monday last week.

“It takes a little time to process things. We also didn’t know everything we wanted to know.”

According to Kaukola, now, a week later, the missing information should be there.

Do you believe that the city government will be told where Arena 3.3’s funding comes from?

“I hope they tell.”

Kaukola emphasizes that this is a private project in which Vantaa is only involved as a lessee of the land.

“We don’t need to know everything.”

Kaukola hopes that Arena 3.3 will finally be implemented.

“There have been different phases since 2019. It’s been a long six years of progress. I would be very happy if it could be completed.”

It has been reported that a preliminary agreement has been made with a European company regarding the financing of Arena 3.3.

“We have a preliminary investment agreement with a European company. I have given a detailed explanation to the city of [Vantaa] about the financing pattern, and they have investigated the background. The preliminary studies have been done, and everything looks quite good,” Perkiö says.

Perkiö refuses to provide more details about the financier, nor how precisely the city council will be informed about the financier on Thursday.

“We will have a discussion with the city council on Thursday. It will be a closed meeting, and the issues that have been agreed to be discussed will be discussed there.”

Mayor Timonen has been informed of the financing plan. He emphasizes that it is up to the project leaders to inform about the financing.

“All I can say is that it is international financing.”

Timonen does not use the term “European”. The company may be European, but the main owner may not be.

Yle reported on Tuesday that businessman Jukka Nyman, who was convicted of financial crimes, has been raising financing for Arena 3.3 and that the company Nyman represents also owned 40 percent of the company established for the arena as late as January 2025.

According to Yle, Nyman no longer owns shares in the arena company.

Perkiö emphasizes that agreements with the designer and the main contractor already exist. Everything is planned to be made public, possibly as early as August.

“When we complete the city process and translate the preliminary financing agreement into a final agreement, we will come out with a joint press conference or statement,” Perkiö says.

Previously, Arena 3.3’s developers have estimated that the arena would be ready by the summer of 2027. Now the schedule has been slightly extended.

“The calendar is constantly moving forward. If we manage to finish by the end of 2027, we will be satisfied,” says Perkiö.

Arena 3.3 is designed primarily for entertainment purposes, such as organizing concerts and fairs. Sports could include basketball and floorball. A fixed ice hockey rink is not planned for the arena, but ice hockey has not been completely ruled out.

“If some big hockey games come to Finland, we will definitely get 18,000 people to sit in the seats,” Perkiö says.

For example, the former Hartwall Arena and Tampere’s Nokia Arena are arenas with a capacity of over 13,000 spectators for ice hockey matches.

Perkiö also throws in the idea of individual special sporting events.

“Even if Mike Tyson came back to fight someone again, we could take that one. But let’s see what entertainment there will be.”