| A little-known company promises to reconstruct a block in the center of Moscow for $80 million This week, the Realtex group of companies and Loko-Bank announced a project to reconstruct an entire block of historical buildings (at the junction of Trubnaya Square, Rozhdestvensky Boulevard and Neglinnaya Street). The peculiarity of the multifunctional complex project is that the territory of 1.1 hectares combines office, retail, and, for the first time, residential space (56.8 thousand square meters in total). Meanwhile, experts in the field of commercial real estate management are not at all confident in its cloudless future.
The presentation of the project took place on Wednesday, the first day of the exhibition “Realtex - investments, construction, real estate” (the annual metropolitan biennale of construction projects under the auspices of the Moscow government), immediately after a press conference by the leaders of the capital’s construction complex, which emphasizes the special attitude of the city administration to project. It is named in a foreign manner “Neglinnaya plaza”.
As Stanislav Boguslavsky, chairman of the board of directors of Loko-Bank (one of the main investors in the project), told the Vremya Novostey newspaper, the cost of the project is estimated at $75-80 million. A third of the amount will be invested by the bank and the Realtex group, and the rest will have to be borrowed. The results of the competition among general construction contractors, including the Italian company Codest, the Turkish Enka and the French Bouygues, have not yet been summed up.
Starting from June, according to the banker, exactly 22 months will pass before the facility is put into operation. However, according to the rector of the Moscow Architectural Institute, Alexander Kudryavtsev, “it is completely unknown how the Neglinka underground river will behave.” The elevation difference in the relief of this place on Neglinnaya Street is 9 meters. It is necessary to dig a pit four floors deep (there will be retail space - 15.5 thousand sq. m. - and parking - 16.2 thousand sq. m.). And 10.5 thousand sq. m of office space should fit into three-story buildings with recreated facades.
The uniqueness and riskiness of the project were noted by several well-known real estate experts. For example, Sergey Ryabokobylko (Stiles & Ryabokobylko) said that from world practice he “does not know of successful projects that combine office, retail and residential premises” (a residential building of variable number of floors - according to the project, 7.4 thousand sq. m - will accommodate within the block). Vera Setskaya (GVA Sawyer, development company - official consultant of Realtex) believes that the project is doomed to success. But, according to one of the experts, it is precisely “the requirement to preserve the historical surroundings of the complex that does not allow us to create A-class offices here.” Vladislav DOLGOV |
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