Balticovo opens staff apartment building in Iecava
A new residential building for Balticovo employees has been opened in Iecava, with room for about 120 workers and their families. The project cost more than two million euros.
On Wednesday, 5 August, AS Balticovo officially opened a new staff residential building at Raiņa iela 2A in Iecava. The project, worth more than two million euros, will provide homes for around 120 employees and their families. The opening ceremony was attended by the Minister of Welfare, the Minister of Climate and Energy, Bauska Municipality Council Chairman Aivars Mačeks, cooperation partners and company staff.
Līga Lazdāne, the company’s personnel director, said the first residents will move in during September. The building contains rental apartments for employees’ families, while one section has been arranged as a service hotel for specialists.
The building was created by reconstructing a structure whose construction started in Soviet times but was never completed. Pāvels Reštņikovs, design director at architecture office SEP, noted that this was not an ordinary renovation. The team took over an unfinished building that had never been put into service, so the task was to create its functionality almost from scratch: redesign stairwells, assess and restore load-bearing structures, develop apartment layouts, all engineering systems, ventilation, heating, fire safety, environmental accessibility and landscaping. The building’s function was changed from a dormitory-type structure to a full apartment building.
Gatis Kauliņš, executive director of SEP construction, said a complete rebuild was carried out – internal and external structures were dismantled and rebuilt, new windows and doors were installed, and the building was insulated. The surrounding area now includes a car park, pedestrian paths, bicycle racks, recreation areas with benches, greenery, a children’s playground and other infrastructure.
Mačeks welcomed the completion of the long-abandoned building, saying it had a long history and expressing joy that Balticovo workers would soon live there. Two local women also attended the event: Elza Kivriņa, who herself worked at Balticovo for 30 years, and Benita Andersone, whose grandsons had worked at the company. They were delighted to see the derelict building, neglected for 30 years, finally cleaned up and finished, and hoped the improved environment would encourage further improvements in the neighbourhood.
