Ruby Group is entering the Finnish market with a new hotel planned for Kamppi, one of Helsinki’s busiest neighborhoods for culture and music. The project involves converting a listed 19th-century office building at Lapinlahdenkatu 3 into an 84-room hotel with public space on the ground floor. The building’s historic features will stay in place as part of the redesign. It marks the German brand’s first property in Finland and its fourth hotel for IHG in the country overall.
The building is not going to become a single-tenant hotel. A pub and a restaurant already operate on the ground floor, and those long-term tenants are staying put. Ruby will add a 24-hour bar and café for guests, sitting alongside the existing businesses. That kind of shared-tenant setup is fairly common for adaptive reuse projects in European city centers, where older buildings often come with existing leases attached.
Location and Timing
Kamppi puts guests close to a lot of the city on foot. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s nearby:
- Kamppi metro station, just steps from the building
- Helsinki Central Station, within walking distance
- Helsinki Art Museum and the wider city center, a few minutes away
- Several waterfront areas, also within walking distance
- Helsinki Airport, about a 30-minute drive
Despite the central location, the hotel sits across from a small park, which the companies describe as giving the property a quieter feel than its surroundings might suggest. The Ruby Hotel Helsinki is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2028.
A Continuing Partnership
The building’s owner is Union Investment, a German institutional investor that already works with Ruby Group on a property in Düsseldorf. Bastian Stuhke, Senior Asset Manager Hospitality at Union Investment, said the deal gives the company steady long-term cash flow while repositioning an older office asset for a different use. He also said, “We are convinced that the transformation will also create positive momentum for the existing ground-floor space and its future leasing.”
Ruby Group’s Associate Director for Central & Northern Europe, Elena Günther-Jakobs, said Helsinki has been on the company’s radar for some time. She said, “The city’s creative spirit, with its vibrant music scene, rich cultural landscape, and gentle Nordic warmth, makes it a perfect match for our target group. We are excited to continue our successful partnership with the owner Union Investment and to bring our unique hospitality experience to this inspiring and steadily growing market.”
The interior design work will be handled by Ruby’s in-house team, led by Matthew Balon.
Part of a Bigger Push
Ruby is one of the brands under IHG Hotels & Resorts’ premium lineup, alongside names like voco and Crowne Plaza. IHG runs more than a million rooms across roughly 7,000 hotels in over 100 countries, with another 2,400 properties in its pipeline. The Helsinki project adds to IHG’s presence in Northern Europe at a time when the region has seen a steady stream of new hotel openings from various operators.
For Ruby specifically, this is a case of entering a new country through a building conversion rather than new construction, a route the brand has used in other European cities as it continues adding locations across the continent.
