Ever-changing commercial district
For more than 25 years, Wester+Elsner has been involved in the development of Stockholm’s most central commercial district.
The Hästen block, in the centre of Stockholm, is home to some of the city’s most prestigious retail environments – NK and PK-Huset on Hamngatan, and previously also the now demolished Passagen, which is being replaced by a new building on the corner of Regeringsgatan and Mäster Samuelsgatan.
Over the years, we have had many assignments in the area, both from the various property owners and from tenants. Not least, we have worked with PK-Huset for a long time. Among other things, we have helped Nordea with tenant assistance and the development of the commercial environment in general.
The work has resulted, among other things, in the transformation of the lower level with Systembolaget as an anchor and the opening of a passage across the building’s street level out towards Smålandstorg, which has created new paths through the block and provided the opportunity for the establishment of several new restaurants.
A major recent change is the demolition of the older building in the north-west corner of the neighbourhood. Here, at the intersection of Regeringsgatan and Mäster Samuelsgatan, ‘RGNT’, a new building with offices, shops, restaurants and housing, is being built. The building is designed by the renowned Danish office Schmidt Hammer Lassen.
Our role as commercial architects is to develop the ground floor retail and restaurant spaces, provide strong customer flows, solve goods logistics, evacuation etc. Together with Pembroke and the leasing team, we have developed various scenarios as input to the project’s main architect and designers, and we provide ongoing support in the dialogue with the future tenants.
More about RGNT on the project website.
It’s been a long process and while waiting for construction to start, we also designed ‘Beta’, the shopping street that temporarily replaced the former Passagen for a few years. The large Systembolaget store that was previously located here was moved to the lower floor of PK-Huset and instead made room for premises for temporary tenants, pop-ups, etc. With small means, the existing shopping street was transformed and given a more modern look while waiting for the building to be demolished. More about Beta here.
