Now the company claims to renovate a historical object with a new concept, which, however, is not ready to be implemented alone. But she already has a competitor - a Petersburg businessman Nikolai Ponomarev.

In 2008, the company Glavstroy-SPb, which was part of the Glavstroy holding by Oleg Deripaska, won the competition to renovate the Apraksin courtyard, a historic complex in the center of St. Petersburg. Since then, the company, which is now owned by the former top manager of Deripaska, has not begun to implement the project, because of which it has often clashed with the city authorities. And Apraksin yard, which occupies almost 14 hectares in the historical center of St. Petersburg, remains a place of illegal trade, where emigrants from the countries of the former USSR mainly work.

But Glavstroy-SPb leaves no hope. The company wants to re-apply for the reconstruction of Apraksin yard, reported on Monday, April 22, the St. Petersburg edition of "Fontanka". In the Property Relations Committee (CRO) of St. Petersburg, Forbes confirmed that they received a new project and sketches of renovation from the Apraksynsky Dvor from the company. According to the head of the CIO, Valery Kalugin, the agency first needs to discuss the project with the Committee on State Control, Use and Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments (CGIOP). The decision may be made until the end of May.

Does the company have a chance to complete the reconstruction?

10 years of struggle

The Glavstroy-SPb company was created in 2006 by Oleg Deripaska together with the co-owner of the Russian Sea group, Maxim Vorobyov, and his partner, Mikhail Kenin (they had a blocking stake of 25% of the shares). And immediately began aggressively buying land in St. Petersburg. Reconstruction of Apraksin yard became the fourth project of the company in St. Petersburg after obtaining the right to build residential complexes in the areas of Parnas and Yuntolovo, as well as in the Admiralty district (between Shkapina, Rozenshteyn and Bypass Canal streets). In the competition for the reconstruction of Apraksin courtyard, Shalva Chigirinsky fought with Deripaska. The project of the latter, the author of which was a British architect Norman Foster, suggested the construction of an underground complex for 32.5 billion rubles. The architects of Glavstroy proposed to demolish eight buildings, cover the Apraksin courtyard with a soaring roof and also build an open bridge across the Fontanka River. Deripaska planned to invest in the project 28-40 billion rubles.

In 2011, Glavstroy’s investments in four St. Petersburg projects were estimated at 280 billion rubles. Of these, the reconstruction of Apraksin yard accounted for 30 billion rubles. But by the time the project is stalled. At first, the crisis and the difficulties of evicting a huge number of small private property owners, who controlled 40% of the complex, prevented it. And later, when a contract for the lease of 12 hectares was concluded with Glavstroy-SPb, historical and cultural expertise showed that all Apraksin courtyard objects are a cultural heritage and demolition or new construction is prohibited. After that, the project finally stopped. As a result, for 10 years the company has not started work.

Top managers of Glavstroy, who worked at the company at the time, say that the city did not have enough determination to implement the project. “The city simply didn’t have enough will power to“ clear it, ”says Arthur Markaryan, who led Glavstroy in 2006-2009. - All over the world, as a rule, the state performs the function of land development: it buys out land, cleans it up and sells it in pieces to private companies. And what about the Apraksin Yard? We do not cope, let's give it to investors. " The city did not go into conflict with society, adds Igor Evtushevsky, who headed Glavstroy-SPb until 2012, says. “It was a political compromise, the city retreated and approved the historical and cultural expertise, which did not allow to do anything with the territory. Given that at that time 70% of the premises of Apraksin Dvor were functionally not needed by anyone, and all the designers proposed to change it conceptually. ”

Despite regular conflicts, the city twice extended Glavstroy-SPb with investment contracts for different courtyard buildings - in 2013 and in 2016. But in April 2018, the Petersburg Arbitration satisfied the claim of the CRO for the recovery of 1.6 million rubles in fines from Glavstroy-SPb, the termination of the investment agreement and the eviction of the company from 12 courtyard buildings (66 buildings in total). The company has just released them this year. Now Glavstroy-SPb owns only three buildings in Apraksin Dvor.

New project and competitor

In 2018, Oleg Deripaska withdrew from the number of owners of the entire Glavstroy holding. According to SPARK, the owner of 90.9% of Glavstroy-SPb through Glavstroy-invest is now Cypriot Fenestraria Consultants Ltd. And she, according to an extract from the Cyprus trade register, belongs to the company "Libra Hodings." Its beneficiaries are five individuals, including Arkady Sargsyan, a long-time member of the Deripaska team, who led him in the 1990s and since 2012 has been in charge of construction assets. Libra Holding also owns other Glavstroy companies. At the same time, in Glavstroy-SPb about 10% (also through Glavstroy-invest) belongs to Yuri Chechikhin, whom oppositionist Alexei Navalny called the husband of Zhanna Zolotova, the daughter of General Viktor Zolotov, head of the Russian Guard. In Glavstroy, Forbes did not respond, under what circumstances Chechikhin became co-owner of Glavstroy-SPb.

Glavstroy-SPb does not have new projects (besides construction on Parnas and Yuntolovo, which is planned to be completed in 2021 and 2025, respectively) in St. Petersburg. And now the company wants to abandon the demolition of buildings in Apraksin dvor and offers to create a theater cluster there, reconstructing eight buildings. The company promises to implement the project in seven years, but it is no longer ready to invest in it independently and hopes for the participation of at least two strategic investors.

However, Glavstroy already has a competitor for the reconstruction of Apraksin courtyard. Of the 172.5 square meters. m, which is the area of ​​its buildings, 65.4 square meters. m are in private ownership (the rest belongs to the city). Most of the squares belong to the St. Petersburg concern of St. Petersburg businessman Nikolay Ponomarev. Its assets include shopping centers Sennaya and Peter, as well as the Park Inn by Radisson hotel in Petrozavodsk. In November 2017, the authorities of St. Petersburg have already approved a renovation project developed for the Peter Concern in Studio 44 by architect Nikita Yavein (among the projects is the reconstruction of the Hermitage General Staff). However, the contract with the company has not yet been signed. In addition, to begin the reconstruction, you need to make changes to several laws. However, in the concern Peter, they told Forbes that they were preparing to start work in July. And by 2025, it promises to adapt 21 facilities in the Apraksin dvor for hotels, shopping, sports and entertainment complexes for 5.1 billion rubles.

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However, Alexander Lelin, CEO of Glavstroy-SPb, told Forbes that the Studio-44 project could not be implemented “for the same reason that Glavstroy itself had not been able to do it before.” But the project of the theater cluster, he said, has an advantage, since it implies "not commercial premises, but a recreational zone."

The concern Peter has informed that they have not received any offers from Glavstroy-SPb in the new renovation project of the yard as a co-investor.