Implementation of this project, costing about $1 billion and initially launched by Shalva Chigirinsky, will now be carried out by the Turkish company Renaissance Construction.
In late April, the parties announced a deal that will allow Renaissance Construction, specializing in contract construction, to carry out development in the Moscow-City. Today this Turkish company has a portfolio of 17 construction projects in the Russian capital, and only one contract in the Moscow-City. Here Renaissance Construction is building on site No. 2-3 the Evolution Tower Multifunctional Complex with a total area 169,000 sqm. The customer of this project is City Palace LLC, a subsidiary company of Snegiri Development of Alexander Chigirinsky and Victor Rashnikov.
This partnership deal will allow Renaissance Construction to enter another site in the MIBC. The Turks will employ their own production and financial power at site No. 17-18 (2.41 ha). Here Shalva Chigirinsky (brother of the owner of Snegiri) once planned to build the tallest skyscraper in Europe (area of 520,000 sqm), but the financial crisis and business problems did not allow the developer to implement this idea. Viktor Rashnikov, who was a partner of Mr. Chigirinsky in the Moscow-City, got this unfinished project. Shalva Chigirinsky has nothing to do anymore with the Russia Tower, says a source familiar with the situation.
In 2012, the Urban Planning and Land Commission approved the new parameters for development of site No. 17-18. The officials allowed the developer to build an MFC with offices, hotels, suites and stores with a total area of 350,000 sqm. Following a subsequent project optimization, the total area once again decreased, this time to 250,000 sqm, of which 130,000 sqm will be offices, and the project budget could reach $750-850 million, a rate of $3,000–3,400 per sqm, according to Elena Antropov, project manager at the real estate development group NEO Centre.
Renaissance Construction will be the contractor and major investor-developer of the redesigned Russia Tower, says a source close to both sides in the transaction, which should be closed within a month. At Renaissance Construction, they declined to comment on this information.
Last year Erman Ilicak, chairman of the board of directors of Renaissance Construction said at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg that his company intended to invest $1.1 billion into a new project in the Moscow-City. Back then, he said the project involved the construction of two office buildings with a total area of 330,000 sqm. However, Mr. Ilicak did not disclose the name of his Russian partner, with whom he managed to reach an agreement during the forum.
