Arco Vara sells Tallinn padel center for €2.88 million

Arco Vara sold the Helme padel venue in Tallinn for €2.88 million including VAT, a price that exceeded the asset’s carrying value and turned a six-court leisure site into cash for the company’s next development phase. The transaction moves capital out of a padel center at Helme 18 in North Tallinn and back toward residential projects, where Arco Vara has been sharpening its focus.

The site did not begin as a trading line item. On 2024-02-08, Arco Vara said it would build a modern, fully automatic padel center at Helme 18 with six indoor courts in a one-story building of about 2,000 square meters. The company later said it opened the center with Estonia’s top players, and an October LinkedIn post from Arco Vara marked the official opening of the Padelstar Helme padel center. Venue listings now describe changing rooms, showers, a sauna, and on-site sales of drinks, snacks and padel equipment.

The sale fits a broader portfolio shift. Arco Vara said the capital released from the deal will support the Luther Quarter and the Arcojärve residential quarter. On 2025-05-12, the company announced it had acquired full ownership of the Luther Quarter, a central Tallinn site made up of 15 properties between Pärnu Road, Tatari, Vana-Lõuna and Vineeri streets. The detailed plan for the area allows a gross building volume of 95,000 square meters, including 18,500 square meters of commercial space and 33,000 square meters of net residential area.

The Luther Quarter is a much larger development play than the padel center ever was. ERR has said the project is expected to be worth about €200 million and is set to begin in 2026, underscoring why a sale like Helme matters: it frees up balance-sheet room for higher-value residential work. Arco Vara has also framed its business around the next growth phase, with major development projects and long-term value creation taking priority over smaller operating assets.

Rait Riim, who became chief executive effective 2026-04-01 for a three-year term, brings more than 20 years of real-estate experience and previously worked at LHV Varahaldus and Kapitel. Arco Vara said on 23 June 2026 that it had 7,000 shareholders, had developed more than 2,380,000 square meters, operated in two countries and built more than 2,800 new homes. For padel, the Helme sale is a clean sign that venues are being priced and moved like real estate, not just built as speculative sports amenities.