http://agency.archi.ru/object_current.html?id=234
http://www.moscowtimes.ru
CANNES, France -- Construction of a $300 million, 325,000-square-meter shopping and retail center that will change the face of northwestern Moscow forever is set to begin next summer.
The ambitious development was among many Russian real estate projects presented Tuesday at the MIPIM property exhibition, held annually in Cannes.
Located on a 12-hectare plot of land next to Voikovskaya metro station on Leningradskoye Shosse, the Metropolis complex will feature 80,000 square meters of office space in three Class-A towers, nine to 12 stories high; parking capacity for 4,000 cars; and 113,000 square meters of retail space, with over 200 shops and restaurants and a multiplex.
The project is being developed by Kazakhstan's Capital Partners, which is financed by a group of Kazakh banking conglomerates. The group includes Kazkommerzbank, which helps the company structure its financing. Capital Partners' other high-profile Moscow project is the construction of the luxury Ritz Carlton hotel on Tverskaya Ulitsa, scheduled to open in early 2006.
Yalin Gur, senior project manager at Capital Partners, said the company -- which has already received approval from City Hall's architectural council -- was expecting to begin construction on the site this summer. The complex should open in 2007, he said.
Market experts are estimating that the project could cost somewhere around $300 million, double the $150 million Capital Partners planned to invest in the construction of the Ritz.
The Metropolis project envisages complete redevelopment of the area, currently occupied by Soviet-era glass-and-concrete buildings. Plans include the construction of a large plaza between the office complex and the shopping center, and relocation of a bus stop in front of the metro station.
The project will also involve serious landscaping work, which should make the development -- surrounded by unappealing Soviet blocks -- more pleasing to the eye.
Leningradskoye Shosse is notoriously congested, and the area around Voikovskaya is known for its traffic jams. Capital Partners is planning to add two lanes to the road, as well as build a circle around the entire complex, Gur said.
Metropolis will be located right on Moscow's planned Fourth Ring Road, potentially one of the best locations for a shopping mall in the city. However, construction of the ring road has recently been postponed, and it is not likely to be completed until after Metropolis opens its doors to shoppers and tenants.
Still, Metropolis will be the largest shopping center in Moscow proper, as the record-setting Mega malls are on the Moscow Ring Road, technically in the Moscow region.
"Metropolis has the potential to become one of the best shopping centers, spelling trouble for some of its competitors located further from the center along Leningradskoye Shosse, such as Ramstore City," said Michael Lange, managing director at Jones Lang LaSalle.
The area around Voikovskaya has not been known as an office location in the past, but Capital Partners has made the right choice in including Class-A offices, said Sergei Riabokobylko, managing director at Cushman & Wakefield Stiles & Riabokobylko.
"This part of Moscow has enormous potential, but they'll have to work hard on traffic issues," he said, adding that proximity to the metro and the location on Leningradskoye Shosse, which connects Sheremetyevo Airport and central Moscow, all work in the project's favor.
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Evrasia99911
April 1 2008
April 24 2008