The Swedish Fortifications Agency (FortV) has acquired Suderbys Manor on Gotland, a strategic island in the Baltic Sea, to meet the Swedish Armed Forces' (Försvarsmakten) growing accommodation needs, according to a press release on 27 April. The manor is located across the road from the Gotland Regiment, P 18, and comprises two properties with approximately ten buildings covering about 5,000 square metres and 44 hectares of land.

– The acquisition is crucial in the short term for the Gotland Regiment to train more conscripts. In the long term, the properties have great potential, which we will now begin to explore further, says Regiment Chief Magnus Frykvall in FortV's press release.

Currently, 40 conscripts are being trained at P 18, but the number is set to more than double by the summer and increase to 200-300 within a few years. Suderbys Manor has been operating as a conference venue since the 1980s, and the Swedish Armed Forces have previously rented parts of the manor during the re-establishment of the regiment.

Existing bookings in the conference facility and banquet hall remain valid, with access commencing at the turn of the year, but the Swedish Armed Forces will become a permanent tenant of the accommodation areas immediately. Renovations and adaptations will be carried out in parallel with the Swedish Armed Forces beginning to use the area, and the first conscripts will move in as early as this summer.

– With this acquisition, we are creating additional opportunities for the Swedish Armed Forces to conduct their important activities on Gotland, says Karl-Martin Svärd, Head of the Property Development Unit at the Swedish Fortifications Agency.