When T1 first opened its glass doors in 2018, it was meant to become a landmark, a futuristic shopping temple with towering ceilings, massive open atriums and bold architectural lines. Instead, within just a few years, T1 had become something entirely different: a symbol of unrealized ambition. By late 2021, the mall had collapsed into bankruptcy and more than 60 percent of its 57.000 square meters of retail floor space stood eerily empty. The building felt abandoned long before the lights dimmed.
Then, on January 1st, 2022, a second act began. Under new ownership by Lintgen OÜ, backed by global investment firm Sixth Street Partners, whose portfolio includes industry-shaping brands like Spotify and Airbnb, T1 didn’t just receive financial backing. It received vision, conviction and a bold willingness to reinvent. What followed was not a repair project, but a rebirth.
Nearly € 30 million is being invested through 2026 to reshape T1 from the inside out. The change is already visible. Daily footfall, once languishing at 5.000 visitors, has climbed steadily toward 14.000 and is projected to reach 15.000 by year’s end. Vacancy has plummeted from catastrophic levels to around 12 percent, with a healthy 5 percent target firmly in sight. For the first time in years, T1 feels alive.
But the real magic, the defining stroke of imagination, happens on the third floor. Where there was once darkness, silence and a string of shuttered units, now lies one of the most innovative sport and activity destinations in Northern Europe. Sixteen thousand square meters have been transformed into a kinetic world of fencing pistes, squash courts, golf simulators, billiards tables, dance studios, boxing areas, functional training zones and specialty clinics. Glass walls open each space to the public eye, turning everyday activity into shared experience. Movement has become spectacle; the third floor has become theatre.
Families wander here not to shop, but to explore. Children press their faces to the glass, mesmerized by dancers and fencers. Teenagers try squash or golf while parents visit health clinics, do groceries or shop for their new outfit. A building that once struggled to attract footfall now attracts emotion. And emotion is the most powerful currency of all.
Much of this vision can be traced back to Tarmo Hõbe, the man at the helm of T1’s reinvention. Known for leading Saku Arena and helping bring Rally Estonia to global prominence, Hõbe understood something fundamental: sport is not just activity, it is community. And if T1's third floor could become a home for it, the entire building would benefit from it. From the 300 sportsclubs that applied for space in T1, Hõbe made a mix of 30 sportsclubs. It means an impressive interest in the concept.
The model is shrewd as much as it is imaginative. T1 covers the structural “white box” costs to create high-quality spaces, while clubs invest in their equipment. Rents for sport clubs are kept intentionally low, three to four times cheaper than retailers, because they deliver something more valuable than profit per square meter. They deliver people. They deliver routine. They deliver joy.
And they deliver loyalty. When a family comes to T1 three times a week for training, the building becomes part of their lives. They shop on the way in, they eat on the way out, they linger between sessions. The sports ecosystem feeds the retail ecosystem and the retail ecosystem supports the restaurants, clinics and offices layered above and below. It is a symbiosis you can feel as you walk through the building.
“T1 is no longer trying to be the shopping center of 2018. It is trying to be the lifestyle center of 2026 and ...”
And that ecosystem is broader than sport alone. The first and second floor is bustling with stores and discounters. The ground floor caters to daily needs with supermarkets and essentials. Offices span the upper floors, bringing a steady weekday rhythm. The top level, with restaurants and family entertainment, draws visitors long into the evening. With some areas open 24/7 through QR access, the building breathes around the clock.
A remarkable story inside T1’s revival is billiards. A sport once confined to dim bar corners but now enjoying a renaissance in Estonia. The Predator Billiard Sport Academy inside T1 is sleek, neon-lit and professional. Estonia’s billiards community has surged in recent years, hosting Eurotour events and European Championships and this academy stands as a symbol of how niche sports can command mainstream attention when given the right stage. Predator’s sponsorship brought global quality; T1 gave it a home worthy of audiences. Throughout the building, this philosophy repeats: elevate the experience, elevate the emotion, elevate the purpose.
Architecturally, the transformation is equally dramatic. New glass elevators pierce the atrium. Escalators connect floors with clarity and flow. Lighting, materials and design elements have been refreshed to create warmth and movement. Renderings in the redevelopment plans show an interior that feels modern, human and full of optimism. It's a stark contrast to the silent corridors of the past.
Yet T1’s comeback is not simply a commercial success story. It is a reflection of a city adapting to a new era. As retail habits shift and traditional malls face decline worldwide, Tallinn has chosen evolution over nostalgia. T1 is no longer trying to be the shopping center of 2018. It is trying to be the lifestyle center of 2026 and perhaps a blueprint for others beyond that.
The philosophy is clear: a mall can be more than a place to buy things. It can be a place to live, to train, to heal, to gather, to learn, to grow. The future of spaces lies in hybridization, in experiences that overlap and reinforce each other. T1 has embraced that future, not reluctantly, but boldly.
By mid-2026, when the final stage of the investment cycle concludes, T1 is expected to operate with stable vacancy, a refined tenant mix and an identity rooted in vitality and community. It will still be a shopping center but also a sports hub, a wellness destination, an office cluster and a family playground. A place where people come not because they must, but because they want to.
In the end, that might be the most powerful transformation of all. T1 was once defined by emptiness. Now, it is defined by human energy, athletic energy, creative energy. The building rises not just through money or construction, but through movement.
Tarmo Hõbe CEO and Member of the Board @ T1 / Lintgen OÜ