Guiding Lines: Market News


Clover for Kaliningrad

Crisis: Developers Halt Building Sites

Mirax freezes projects

Te management of Mirax Group, which is part of one of the most successful development companies, has announced that it is freezing investment projects for at least a year. All developers started to experience problems in attracting credit more than a year ago. Now the cost of loans has grown so much that builders are refusing to realize projects. Mirax is the first to announce this. "We have made a decision to freeze the realization of all projects that are at the stage of development,” announced Sergey Polonsky, chairman of the board of directors, at a press conference. “A decision to set up a building site will only be taken when the market is stable." Under Polonsky's forecasts, the market may stabilize within a year. If the forecast is wrong more radical decisions may be made. "In general, I will leave the development business with ease if it is uninteresting from a commercial point of view," the head of Mirax has admitted. However, a freeze on investment projects, according to members of the board of directors at Mirax, will not prevent design work from being conducted, which does not demand such large investments. According to chairman of the board of the corporation Alexei Kunitsyn, work on premises under construction will continue up to 2012. Earlier Mirax Group rejected plans to build a shopping and entertainment center under Smolenskaya Ploshchad in Moscow. The company only developed the design project of the construction of underground space at Smolenskaya Ploshchad and then resold it to another developer. Megastroi bought the project for $60 million. The cost of construction for the proposed 4-flooor underground complex with an area of more than 30,000 sq.m is estimated at $130 million.

Demand for Warehouses and Offices Exists

International legal firm Salans has advised Raven Russia, which specialises in commercial real estate in Russia, in relation to the purchase of a warehouse complex located near St. Petersburg, costing $216 million. This price is unprecedented for real estate transactions in the Northwest region of Russia. The warehouse project will have a total area of 164,000 sq.m and is located in the Shushary district near St. Petersburg. The first phase of construction will be ready to accept tenants by the end of 2008, and the whole complex should be completed by 2010.

The anchor tenant of the first phase of Zapadniye Vorota business park (Ulitsa Belovezhskaya, near the intersection between the MKAD and Mozhaiskoye shosse) multinational oil company BP, which has rented almost 50,000 sq.m of office space. It is the largest transaction in history on the office real estate market in Russia, according to Jones Lang LaSalle. The rental contract for 100 per cent of the office space of the first phase of the complex has been signed nine months prior to the official opening of the business park which is planned for March 2009. The business park will measure a total of 64,000 sq.m and includes three buildings. Tsenturion is acting as the developer. Currently the second phase of the Zapadniye Vorota II project, measuring 120,000 sq.m, is being constructed and should be completed by the second quarter of 2010.

Finstar Properties Buys EkoInterra Holding

Finstar Properties, which owns 27 shopping and entertainment complexes in the regions of Russia, has bought 100% of the shares in EkoInterra. The company's main activities are the functions of a customer-constructor and technical customer in the construction of various functional purpose premises. Since 1992 the company has realized building projects in the sphere of commercial and residential real estate with a total area of more than 250,000 sq.m. General director of EkoInterra Andrei Aksenov has been appointed by the vice-president of Finstar Properties to supervise the management of building projects.

In Brief

Filion Shopping and Entertainment Complex is Rented Out

Filion shopping and entertainment complex on Bagrationovsky proezd has been 85% rented out, informs Jones Lang LaSalle. The developer of Filion is Rubin Development (Joint-Stock Company Extrakt-Fili). 100 per cent of the assets of the company belong to MTZ Rubin. The project is located near Gorbushkin Dvor shopping center which also belongs to MTZ Rubin. The total area of the complex exceeds 128,000 sq.m, of which more than 55,000 sq.m is rentable space, and 40,000 sq.m is a multi-storey car park. One of the first Carrefour hypermarkets will be located in Filion. The volume of investments in the construction of the complex was $170 million. He complex is planned to open in the second quarter of 2009.

1.5 million sq.m for Kuntsevskaya

AFI Development has received a governmental order of Moscow on the reconstruction of the transport hub in the Kuntsevskaya metro station area together with the simultaneous development of a public zone including the construction of a multipurpose center, a hotel complex, a business and office centre, a cultural and entertainment complex, an administrative and managerial block and multi-storey car parks, measuring a total area of 1.5 million sq.m on a territory of 22.24 hectares. The Kuntsevo project was valued by independent adviser Jones Lang LaSalle on December 31, 2007 between $0.7 billion and $7.6 billion. Armand, 100 per cent owned by AFI Development obtained the order.

Clover Group has announced the opening of the clover Citycenter multipurpose complex, the largest in Kaliningrad. The complex is located 10 Ploshchad Pobedy, in the historical and business centre of the city. The complex has a total area of 48,500 sq.m and unites a class A business center (13,200 sq.m), a shopping and entertainment complex (10,100 sq.m), a restaurant, food court, fitness center, children's entertainment zone and a 5-star Radisson SAS hotel with 178 rooms. The building is equipped with an underground car park measuring 10,000 sq.m. The designs of the project are Irish architect bureau Murray O’Laoire Architects. Investments in the project have totalled more than 2.5 billion rubles. The company expects to recoup the costs by 2015.

Regions

RIGroup Goes to Moscow Suburbs

In the next 6 months RIGroup will open three new premises in the Moscow suburbs. At the end of 2008 it will open a shopping center in Klin measuring 11,700 sq.m with a car park with more than 100 parking spaces. At the beginning of 2009 it will start work on Shastlivaya 7ya (Happy Family) shopping and entertainment center in Serpukhov. The three-storey complex, located in the city center, will measure 21,000 sq.m and will have parking for 300 cars. In March next year a 16-storey multipurpose complex in Vidnoye, including a Shastlivaya 7ya shopping and entertainment center and RIGroup-Plaza, will open. The complex will have a total area of 51,500 sq.m of which the 4-storey shopping and entertainment center will occupy 21,660 sq.m and the 12-storey office center 8,180 sq.m. The complex will also have a ground-level car park for 100 cars and underground parking for 300.

4.65-Million Ruble Claim Against Heliopark

The nature protection division of the Public Prosecutor of the Moscow region has brought forward a claim for compensation of 4.65 million rubles for damage to forests by the Heliopark Country Resort cottage settlement in the Taldomsk area of the region, informs Cottage.ru. The website of the Office of Public Prosecutor of the region states that Heliopark has occupied a site with an area of 6 hectares in the Taldomsky Leskhoz forest area without permission and has placed summer houses and saunas on the territory. In addition, the resort also has a mini-zoo, which has wild animals, including eagle owls, which it does not have permission to house. Heliopark Country resort has been brought to account and fined a total sum of 510,000 rubles.

Hotel in Konakova

In 2009 Heliopark Group will open the new Heliopark Konakovo Club Hotel in the Tver region. The hotel will become part of the Konakovo River Club resort which is 120km from Moscow on the banks of the Volga. The total area of the resort is more than 100 hectares, and includes the territory of the peninsula with a network of artificial channels and five islands, connected by pedestrian bridges. The area of the site for the hotel is 12.5 hectares and it will have 172 rooms, including separately standing cottages. The opening of the 4-star hotel is planned for October 2009. The proprietor of the premises is Vikomo and investments in the project will total more than $40 million.