Ülemiste City, a thriving mixed-use campus in Tallinn, Estonia, initially faced challenges in understanding movement patterns across its estate. With a diverse set of tenants and visitors, the need for accurate real-time data on mobility, traffic flow, and occupancy was critical. Fyma provided an AI-driven solution that offers comprehensive insights into estate-wide movement, including footfall, vehicle traffic, and urban space utilization. By integrating Fyma’s computer vision technology, Ülemiste gained precise data to inform planning decisions, optimize space usage, and enhance the overall visitor and tenant experience. The deployment has led to improved leasing decisions, better tenant mix strategies, data-driven urban planning, and validation of macro-level datasets, all without any CapEx expenditure.
CASE STUDY - Ülemiste City
Transforming urban mobility and estate management at Ülemiste City with AI-powered insights
Client Background
Industry
Mixed Use
Location
Estonia
Information
Ülemiste City is a major business and technology district home to nearly 500 companies and 18,000 people. It features office spaces, hotels, restaurants, and a transport network integrating trams, buses, and international rail. The developer aims to balance economic growth with accessibility and sustainability. Ülemiste City is Estonia’s largest smart business district, located near Tallinn Airport, and is a key hub for innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship. Developed on a former industrial site, it now hosts over 500 companies and 18,000 employees, with a strong focus on sustainability, smart city solutions, and education. The district continues to expand, integrating office spaces, residential developments, and public services to create a vibrant, future-oriented mixed-use environment.
The Problem
Ülemiste City faced multiple challenges:
- Inefficient monitoring of mobility trends, leading to congestion and underutilised areas.
- Limited visibility into estate-wide activity, affecting planning and tenant services.
- Over-reliance on high-level cellphone movement data, which lacks precision for detailed analytics.
- Inefficiencies in parking management and curbside usage.
- Difficulty assessing the success of urban planning interventions, such as bike-to-work initiatives and temporary road closures.
- The need to optimize green spaces and community engagement while maintaining site profitability.
- No solution available that could provide both indoor and outdoor mobility insights with high accuracy and without requiring expensive infrastructure investments.
These challenges presented significant risks to the site, including:
- Increased Congestion and Inefficiencies: Without a clear understanding of movement patterns, mobility within the estate could become increasingly inefficient, leading to congestion at peak times and difficulties in managing pedestrian and vehicle flows.
- Unanticipated Traffic Bottlenecks: The lack of real-time traffic flow data could result in unexpected congestion at entry and exit points, particularly when external roadworks or disruptions occur without prior notice.
- Ineffective Urban Planning Decisions: Without granular occupancy and mobility data, planning initiatives such as infrastructure changes and sustainability measures would rely on estimations rather than accurate insights, reducing their effectiveness.
- Suboptimal Leasing and Tenant Strategy: A lack of reliable data on footfall and movement trends could lead to misaligned leasing decisions, with tenants potentially struggling to attract the right customer base or being placed in less optimal locations.
- Inability to Validate Planning Interventions: Without before-and-after data insights, it would be challenging to measure the effectiveness of urban planning decisions, making it difficult to refine strategies and justify future investments.
The Solution
Fyma deployed its AI-powered analytics by integrating with Ülemiste City’s existing security camera network, enabling real-time monitoring of:
- Footfall analytics: Measuring visitor movement in public spaces, offices, and retail areas.
- Traffic flow insights: Tracking modal share, congestion patterns, and curbside behavior.
- Parking optimization: Implementing real-time wayfinding and reducing vehicle idling times.
- Event impact analysis: Evaluating how interventions like pop-up cafes influence visitor engagement.
The implementation was seamless, with Fyma’s software leveraging existing infrastructure, requiring no additional hardware or sensors. The platform provided anonymized, GDPR-compliant insights without collecting biometric data.
Results & Metrics
Fyma’s technology unlocked significant benefits for Ülemiste City. These included:
- No CapEx Required: Fyma’s solution leveraged existing cameras, avoiding costly infrastructure upgrades. By choosing Fyma instead of installing a 30-camera system, Ülemiste City saved an estimated €150,000 in upfront costs while gaining far superior real-time analytics capabilities
- Monitored a 5x increase in footfall in green spaces on days when pop-up vendors were introduced, informing commercial strategy for these.
Achieved a 20% reduction in parking congestion and saved 2.2 metric tonnes of CO₂ per month by reducing vehicle idling time through improved wayfinding. - Improved planning for micro-mobility, leading to better infrastructure for bicycles and e-scooters based on actual usage patterns. Three times more people bike to work at Ülemiste campus compared to the rest of the capital.
- Enabled ongoing data-driven decision-making for benchmarking, leasing, planning, and future development initiatives.
- Supported negotiations with local authorities and enhanced planning applications with data-driven insights.
- Helping optimise tenant mix and leasing strategies by analyzing actual visitor and foot traffic trends.
- Enhanced traffic management by enabling proactive congestion monitoring and intervention strategies.
- Continuous validation of macro level mobility data from telecom providers.
Conclusion
Ülemiste City has transformed its urban mobility and estate management with Fyma’s AI-powered insights. By replacing traditional estimations with real-time movement data, the development has gained greater control over its entire estate. Fyma’s highly accurate information provides unparalleled insights into footfall, vehicle traffic, and occupancy patterns, both indoors and outdoors. The ability to benchmark planning decisions, validate macro-level data, and gain a real-time picture of asset health is unmatched by any other solution on the market. Moving forward, Fyma continues to work closely with Ülemiste, providing the data necessary to enhance tenant experience, optimize urban mobility, and drive smarter planning decisions.