Nedvizhimost' Steny Biznesa (fresh issue)

The crisis has arrived on the real estate market in Perm.

Making forecasts in the sphere of commercial real estate in 2009 is certainly interesting, but does not have much practical use.

In the present conditions of the financial crisis, people prefer not to talk about the deadlines of realizing projects.

To put a new hotel into operation during a crisis is a pretty risky business.

Serious financial shocks have affected both consumers of warehouse complexes, and developers.

Constructers are waiting for the arrival of real money into their accounts, and there will not be any, possibly, until the end of the first quarter of 2009.

CTBUH Elena Shuvalova, general director of Lobby agency, has been appointed regional head of the world council for tall buildings and city environment (Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, CTBUH) for Russia.

Quality standards are a distinctive feature of almost any hotel chain

In the Moscow suburbs there is currently no personnel to work for created enterprises.

Recently Russian Railways (RZhD) announced the start of several projects on the redevelopment of territories and its intention to become a participant in the real estate market at a national level, even through its not their main field of business. In Moscow alone RZhD controls sites estimated at a total volume of 3,000 hectares, and across the whole of Russia has 1 million hectares. These plans are attracting attention already because many of its land plots are in the centers of large cities. The redevelopment of transport premises is an unusual occurrence in Russian practice at the moment. Zheldoripoteko, a subsidiary of RZhD, has been entrusted with carrying out this project. The general director of the company Vitaly Votolevsky tells us about it.

The destiny of agro complexes in Russia is known: the majority of them stopped operating during the perestroika period of the 1990s, land was sold and production was shut down.

Glass is a modern and convenient material for the construction and furnishing of premises. Modern technologies allow for the creation of complex and strong designs. Glass facades today carry out the role of insulation, ventilation systems, protection from noise, wind and even fire. Alexander Skvortsov, head of the group of companies AGC Flat Glass Russia, explains the popularity of recent architectural trends among developers: the borders between the «private world» of a building and the environment are erased, the simple and concise external shape of the building is more welcoming. In the opinion of Alexei Lyashko, head of the department of material-technological support of STiS group, the increased requirements in the construction of buildings were an incitement for the development of new directions in the glass industry, such as glass with coverings, hardened and safety glass.

ADG Group Marina Shevchenko has been appointed financial director of development company ADG Group.

The rental rate in business centers is influenced by various factors, from the situation in the real estate market (the level of supply and demand) to the condition of the premises being rented out (furnishings, shell and core, etc.).

This year at the tenth anniversary of the Zolotoye Pero (Golden Feather) competition of the Moscow Association of Realtors something strange happened.

Israel.

The logistics services market in Russia is far from perfect. Huge distances, the absence of a developed transport network, the lack of logistics complexes, the opacity of calculations, the multitude of intermediaries, etc, essentially increase the cost price of goods. Optimizing the costs of logistics could save manufacturers up to 30%.

Warehouse constructions as a special part in the chain of logistics have undergone significant changes all over the world. In the West developers and large logistics companies are moving towards automated warehouses, introducing modern management and accounting systems. And although new technologies are rather expensive, their introduction frees up labour, reduces overhead costs and increases profits.

Several factors influence the rental rate. These influence the earnings of the owner of office real estate to different degrees. Traditionally average rental rates on the office real estate market are calculated on the basis of their classification. The attribute of a building to this or that class specifies what price range the potential tenants will have to pay. In turn, each class has a set of parameters that define the rate of each specific office complex.

Without the creation of a developed road network and developed pubic transport structure, we can expect nothing good to come from the ambitious plans on the creation of the following business areas: Moscow-City, Nagatino i-Land, and business complexes in the Paveletskaya, Kuntsevskaya and Semyonovskaya areas.

The St. Petersburg authorities have announced plans for the targeted sale of commercial premises to small and medium-sized businesses. According to provisional estimations approximately 5,000 current tenants can take advantage of the right to buy their premises from the St. Petersburg Committee on the Management of the City's Property (KUGI). The local law which regulates the order and the conditions of privatization should come into force by the end of year.

Although Krasnodar is not formally a million-population city — 800 000 people officially there — development of the commercial real estate market in it follows pretty much the same script as large Russian regions. First of all, the development of the retail segment, then numerous applications of developers for warehouse projects and finally the construction of multipurpose complexes with an obligatory hotel component.

Jones Lang LaSalle Jones Lang LaSalle has changed its top-management.

The old Moskva hotel is connected with an old anecdote that illustrates that essence of that epoch — the 1930s — well. Architect Alexei Shchusev was in charge of the Mossovet design bureau at the time, which made two variants for the facade of the new construction. Joseph Stalin then chose and sign off the design he liked and preferred which was then realized on Manezhnaya Ploshchad.

The question «How do we lay out Russia?» is still relevant. One fresh idea has been to create more than two cities in the country that are centres of gravity for investments and migratory streams. It is important to give Russian cities a new impulse for development, considers Nadezhda Kosareva, the president of the Institute Ekonomiki Gorod (Institute of City Economics) fund.

The skyscrapers of Moscow-City business center — the first such area in Moscow — have become almost such integral symbols of the city as the Ostankino tower.

In recent time environmental law has become one of the major fields of law from being almost forgotten. This is first of all due to the rapid development of industry and new technologies and therefore unfortunately increases the threat to the life and health and environmental safety of people all over the world.

It is not possible to have modern real estate premises without electricity. Electrical household appliances, lifts, lighting and other products for civilized living require electric power. For builders the absence of access to energy supplies is «equal to death».

The transparency of the development business in Russia is still rather low. Even large and, apparently, public companies do not disclose the true state of affairs to the public. And so what can be said about smaller firms?

ROSTOV-ON-DON — Local companies have at last assessed the advantages of high quality commercial real estate. Now modern business centers, shopping complexes and logistic parks have no problems with fillability. Developers are trying to please the growing inquiries of clients and are building class A premises in the city.

ST. PETERBURG — St. Petersburg developers are all readily including hotels within the structure of multipurpose complexes. According to Praktis CB, the share of such construction makes up about a quarter of all hotel projects sold in the city. However, it is still difficult to judge how successful these projects will be: functioning hotels within the structure of completed mixed projects are still exotic. And already there are examples of when investors have rejected «rooms» in favour of more simple to manage and more profitable offices or shops.

They say about architects that the pencil is in the hand of the client. Whatever they want, you draw…is it upsetting? Well-known Russian architect Sergei Kiselyov answers with a shrug of the shoulders: «You need to understand that we are spending other people's money. They trust us — we are happy, but sometimes customers only really believe in themselves.» Respect, not only for someone else's money, but also for the architectural nature of the city and monuments of historical heritage underlie all of Kiselyov’s projects. It is no wonder that he and his team have won every possible architectural award, including from developers.

The Okhotnik Hotel which is included in the structure of a multipurpose complex is located in an 8-storey building in the north of Moscow (1 Golobinskoye shosse). The premises which was put into operation in February 2008, is both old and new. The hotel is located in a building which was previously part of the central building of hunters and the fishermen. But it had become outdated, and was not bringing the expected income and this became the main reason for redevelopment. The hotel is open, but the rest of the complex is now under reconstruction.

Builders say that concrete is the muscles of buildings, and the front facing bricks are its protective armour, then it is possible to compare metal frame constructions or steel work to a skeleton.

Participants of the Russian real estate market are actively developing new tools for financing projects. One such tool recently became the funds of Non-state Pension Funds, which invest money in real estate premises either through management companies or through directly buying premises. Considering that every year the volume of funds in NPFs increase, they need more and more premises to finance. In a situation whereby world share markets are falling, investment in real estate has become a very reliable way for NPFs to augment capital, and for developers such funds are a last hope when banks do not have enough «long» money.

Leasing is something in-between usual renting and traditional credit. The main advantage is the free use of an object for rent by making profit out of it and the possibility of buying the object at the residual cost at the end of the validity of the contract. For businessmen the main appeal of leasing is in the optimization of taxation. The state, obviously not interested in reducing the tax base, is not neglecting this sphere, and in the West discussions about the nature of leasing and its regulation, including taxation, bankruptcy, accounts and reporting do not cease. Nevertheless this has not prevented leasing from roughly developing, including in the construction industry and the sphere of real estate. In the last few years leasing has begun to make itself known also in Russia.

The construction of multipurpose buildings including both offices and housing is one example of the successful adaptation to constantly changing conditions as dictated by the city authorities. In realizing mixed-use projects, developers build apartments where it is not permitted to build housing, and offices where an office building project would not get approval. A hotel brings additional preferences to the developer from the city.

Russia has studied the elements of hospitality. Even 10 years ago nobody spoke about Russia conforming to European standards and especially about competing with western hotel brands. Now owners of hotels and architects do not want Russian hotels to copy standard European hotels in everything. The tendency of universalization has begun to become obsolete, giving place to the idea of individualization.

ST. PETERSBURG — In 2007 the St. Petersburg hotel market increased by 540 new rooms. This is approximately half the figure the city administration was counting on. In Peter last year, only one large hotel opened, while all others were small. However St. Petersburg authorities do not connect these modest achievements with low investment activity in the sphere of hospitality, and name the main problem as non-observance of deadlines for construction.

PERM — The only sector of commercial real estate to have reached relative saturation in Perm, is retail real estate. Office centers are also under construction but there is still a distinct lack of such premises in the city. Hotels and warehouses wait their turn. The rise in prices in all segments, according to analysts, does not exceed inflation.

One and a half years ago the shares of Sistema-Gals were placed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). Since then the capitalization of the company has fallen, but its president Felix Yektushenkov does not consider it a catastrophe as «the company cannot grow when everyone is falling.» The company's portfolio of projects has not decreased, and their total value, according to western experts, exceeds the total capitalization of the company.

Since 2005 the number of participants in the consulting services market has increased by approximately 4 times and has become the precondition for its change. The main reason for changes is the increase in the number of requirements concerning consulting reports for both financial and development companies. Some time ago banks were not really concerned about this, but now developers irreproachably need to provide quality reports on projects in order to receive funding for construction.

Restaurateurs in Moscow have moved from their kitchens being storerooms, to the fryer and grill becoming part of the interior, and the preparation of a dish — a culinary non stop show, whereby the kitchen is separated from diners' tables only with a transparent fence, or sometimes with a bar.

Shopping centers are more and more often being divided into segments for various types of goods making it easier for shoppers to find their way round. Here there will be clothes, there will be watches, on the lower floor groceries, and on the top floors books and computers. Convenient navigation attracts more consumers, which is more profitable for the landlord, who always has the need for a ready argument to raise rental rates. But for tenants and sellers of specific boutiques such a principle can sometimes create inconveniences. They aren't concerned with the general statistic of the whole shopping center, but with their own profits, which can only b provided for by those shoppers that, as a minimum, visit their shop.

YEKATERINBURG — Enthusiasm for large-scale projects, which are being realized by large financial-industrial groups reigns in the commercial real estate market in Yekaterinburg. Developers are sure that the dynamical development of the Ural region and its center will allow for millions of square meters of new multipurpose centers and areas of business activity. Analysts warn that this could lead to falling prices in the market, transport problems, a crisis in management and small non-professional development companies leaving the market.

An investment boom in the warehouse segment has drifted smoothly from Moscow to other regions. A number of large companies are developing chain projects of logistics parks in Russian cities. Among them is a joint project between Megalogix of fund Raven Russia and Avalon group of companies. Alexei Gushch, co-owner and general director of construction company Avalon, comments on the current situation and the prospects of the warehouse market.

Developers that develop projects from registering the land to sale of the premises, are those interested in the correct positioning of a premises, in its characteristics, its quality and size. The widespread АВС classification of premises in Russia generally has nothing in common with professional building lexicon, the criteria of classification reflects the characteristics of a premises necessary for its valuation as a product and sale on the market. In Russia classification has not been born — brokers have artificially created it as a tool to complete transactions.

The Russian office market exists under western standards. As does the organization of office space. Many companies use the latest developments in this field — from already classical open space to mobile workplaces and the absence of separate offices for managers. In the opinion of experts, this allows for optimization of working process, and sometimes savings on rent. But such innovations do not suit everyone.

The Russian belief that a problem can be solved once and for all is deep-rooted. They lay a road and then it's possible to forget about it. Having constructed a shopping complex, it should last a hundred years and for all this time make profit. In reality, the owners of shopping centers more often collide with a situation whereby the center brings more expense than income.

In most cases shopping center tenants in Russia pay developers a fixed rate of rent, instead of a percentage of turnover as is accepted in the majority of developed European countries. However, in the last few years proprietors and tenants of retail real estate more often choose a mixed model of charging rent. Perhaps changes are not far off?

In Soviet films employees of numerous scientific research institutes played table tennis in breaks — the whole storyline of the film «Samaya Obayatelnaya I Privlikatelnaya» was built around a ping-pong table. In modern office centers in Moscow everything is different: their owners prefer to make money from every square meter, and therefore there are no ping-pong tables in the majority of business centers. In rare cases in office centers there may be a high-grade fitness club but then this is a question already of a separate infrastructural element more often open to all members of the public.

Las Vegas is a unique city in the desert, which was fated not only to survive but also become famous throughout the whole world, again stands at the threshold of a big choice. Global warming, the fruits of which are reaped more often by the inhabitants of the state of Nevada, has set a new problem for the city — to survive in changing climate conditions. Having accepted this new call, the authorities of the Clark County, in which the territory of Las Vegas is located, have understood the necessity of a transition to new energy saving technologies and so-called green construction.

Anyone travelling along the M62 south of Leeds cannot fail to see the huge distribution sheds on either side of the motorway — evidence of West Yorkshire’s ongoing popularity as a location for UK distributors and logistics businesses.

Difficulties with financing for developers arising from the crisis in the share market will also affect the warehouse segment. Investors will lower their activity and a number of builders will reconsider their plans. Besides problems with money they will have problems with clients, and this is despite the statements of analysts about a backlog of demand.

KAZAN — The surplus of commercial areas at the beginning of 2007 was estimated at 0.5 million sq.m and the share of vacant areas in offices at 15-30 per cent by analysts. Contrary to pessimistic forecasts, the market has absorbed these surpluses. In March 2008 in the city, only 5.5 per cent of offices were vacant and no more than 2 per cent of premises were vacant in quality shopping centers. Investors have perked up and have announced the realization of new projects.

MR Group is a rather young company by Russian market standards. It is only five years old. But in this short time it has done a lot. The company not only has projects in Moscow, but also in Sochi where the company came long before the city was announced the Olympic capital and where it has already finished the construction of its first project. According to member of the board of directors Victor Labuzdko, the business is going successfully, and he calls MR Group «a young, actively growing organism.» Among the company's plans are the attraction of foreign partners and a possible listing on a stock exchange after 2012.

Boris Guretsky, general director of Mospromstroi, despite being a respectable age, is vigorously energetic and optimistic. It with some sadness that he remembers the past and considers that the existing system of business dealing should be changed. «I worked in Glavmospromstroi as the first deputy chief when it was a state organization. In 1990 when the auctioning off of businesses began, we were auctioned. Mospromstroi in those days was a socialist enterprise, and more than 75,000 people worked in the company,» he says.

On 1-2 April 2008 as a part of the MosBuild annual construction exhibition the fifth Russian championships in roofing skills, organized by the National Roofing Union with support of the administration of the Presnensky area of Moscow took place. After a selection stage 14 teams from Vladivostok, Krasnodar, Moscow and St. Petersburg got through to the finals.

Promoting a new and functioning shopping center is an obligatory condition of a successful functioning premises. Western practice of distributing the marketing budget between the tenants has not yet reached wide circulation in Russian shopping centers: on the whole proprietors and tenants conduct isolated advertising campaigns. But increased competition on the market of shopping areas is pushing tenants and proprietors of shopping centers to cooperate for general benefit.

All proprietors of any commercial real estate premises have an idea about the companies they would like to see in the ranks of tenants. But unfortunately there's no such thing as an ideal tenant. So the parties should always look for compromise and adapt to each other's follies. The question is who will the developer give it to and who has no chance of getting it.

To begin with, stress (nervous breakdown) simply prevents you from concentrating.

«They say that I want to turn the world upside down with my statements,» the great heretic Jiordano Bruno wrote. «But would it be bad to turn the upside world?» This question, possibly, motivates developers who are keen to develop original projects. Buildings in the shape of an iron, a basket, bubbles and turned upside down buildings. When Polish businessman and philanthropist Daniel Chapevski built his upside down house, he did not know that it would become a local sight. Wishing to remain unknown the investor planned for the house to become an original monument marking the end of the communist era. The building has become famous, but not as a monument, but first of all as an attraction. Chapevski has reached commercial success — the building has glorified the small town of Shimbark in north Poland. The upside down building, constructed on July 31, 2007, is based on its roof with its foundation up, and to come inside is possible only through the loft window.

SAMARA — In the last two years the shopping and office segments of real estate have been the most actively developed. Experts are afraid that soon there will be super-saturation. Analysts say that warehouses are a promising market. Although hotels are the outsiders a small revival has been observed nevertheless.

The main thing in the hotel business is mutual respect. Such a principle is defended by Mark Hoplamazian, the president and chief executive director of international hotel chain Hyatt International. Hyatt doesn't disclose financial information in respect to the interests of the owners of the hotels that it manages. According to him, Hyatt is a private company and has no plans in the near future to become public.

Market growth and strengthening competition more often cause developers of elite residential complexes to face problems in realizing the least liquid premises on the ground floors of buildings. At first sight the obvious solution is to allocate the premises on the ground floors for commercial use and to regard them as a separate business. However there are a number of complexities.

Riverside territories and water space in the Moscow region and nearby regions are now lagging behind Moscow's recreational zones in terms of economic efficiency of use by 15-17 years. The wishes of investors to invest in the development of riverside areas to build new yacht clubs and holiday homes have been blocked by contradictions in legislation and by officials.

Yachting is simultaneously a sport, entertainment, and relaxation, and for many also a very profitable business. Sailing and motorboat enthusiasts do not begrudge funds or time spent on their hobby. From this comes a constantly growing yacht industry. One sphere of yachting is the infrastructure, i.e. specially equipped moorings and everything connected with them, or as they are called in the west, the endearing name — marina.

Big crowds of people, which are a necessary part of any metropolis in the world, cardinally change the representations of safety. Is it possible to feel confidently safe in a big city? On the other hand, the safety methods of city people, for example in London, sometimes look like they have been copied from a fantasy novel.

«Civilization is constructed and is supported by the quality of infrastructure,» Richard Rosan, president of ULI (Urban Land Institute, USA) notes. And in cities one of the main parts of infrastructure is the metro, or underground.

Independent entrance onto the Russian building market usually comes to a pitiable end for foreign builders.

The projects of SUIholding have been seen by almost every muscovite.

KAZAN — Over the last 10 years the MAPIC retail real estate exhibition has became a traditional meeting place for developers, investors, retailers and consultants.

Russian developers are making announcements about multi-million dollar projects, and several large-scale companies have project portfolios which already exceed more than billions of dollars But the value of the company itself is usually less than the funds that are required to pay for realising the project.

There are still tens of thousands of hectares of unallotted state land in the Moscow region.

There are retail streets in every megacity.

LAS VEGAS — The original anthem of the city, which explains the beginnings of the gaming business, is the song Viva Las Vegas by Elvis Presley from the romantic comedy Viva Las Vegas, 1964.

Demand for commercial real estate in general is growing everywhere, and capital investments in this segment are also increasing.

In November 2007, Rezidor Hotels Group officially opened a head representative office in Moscow.

The problems that every developer-land owner has to deal with are always a popular subject of discussion by the market community.

The average Moscow developer resembles a craftsman.

The 90s generation can hardly imagine that the Internet never existed before.

The rhythm of modern life in big cities dictates to its natives more and more unusual conditions of existence.

In the Russian real estate market wooden residential buildings have always been popular: the cost price of their construction is lower than a stone or brick construction, and they are much more ecological.

It is impossible for a high-altitude business center to function without modern lifts capable of quickly lifting a person hundreds of meters upwards.

In many megacities of the world commercial real estate is gradually going under the ground.

For Some store chain it is possible to grow to international level.

The three-storey house for sale on Acacia Avenue in Ottawa, Canada, has plenty to recommend it.