A decision was made at the last session of the city’s building commission to terminate eight construction projects, a source in the Mayor's Office told Vedomosti.
This mainly affects high-rise projects that would place a burden on roads, utilities and social infrastructure, the mayor's press service said.
Krost was to reconstruct a Moscow police facility. It has already built one building with an area of about 5,000 square meters and was to continue working at the site, Krost general director Alexei Dobashin said.
Dobashin was aware of the cancellation of that contract but declined to comment on the reasons for it. A source close to the company said the financial crisis had had a detrimental effect on the project and that changes in the structure of the police department had left it practically "orphaned."
Vedomosti was unable to reach spokespeople for the other companies affected.
Mayor Sergei Sobyanin asked at the end of November that a list be drawn up of all the city's investment projects within three months. He said at the time that Moscow had contracts for the construction of 40 million square meters, but "half of them are dead and 50 percent of the other half require revision."
City officials plan to look at all existing contracts. A source that was present at the commission meeting said 1,175 objects would be reviewed. Of those, 333 reviews have been completed or are awaiting signatures on documents, and 369 contracts are expected to be extended. The remaining projects will be considered on an individual basis.
There are 188 projects that have not yet been started or that have missed their deadlines, 163 have no land use agreements, and 122 have missed their construction deadlines without ever being started, according to the draft resolution on the contracts that was discussed at the meeting.
City officials are prepared to simplify bureaucratic procedures for all 1,175 sites by making changes to city regulations. The time between a decision by the commission and the finalization of documents will be reduced by 53 days to a maximum of 25 days in total, an official of the Mayor's Office said.
Seven of the eight projects that have been canceled are in central Moscow. They include construction of three residential complexes in the "historical architectural zone" around prestigious Ostozhenka Ulitsa, an entertainment complex with parking facilities on Smolenskaya Ploshchad, a nonresidential building on Sadovaya-Karetnaya Ulitsa, an underground garage on the square at Krasniye Vorota and a multilevel garage on Marxistskaya Ulitsa.
In addition, reconstruction will be halted on Krost's project on Syromyatnichesky Proyezd and on the remodeling and expansion of a multi-use building on Bolshaya Sadovaya Ulitsa. The overhaul of a shopping center on the northern outskirts of the city has also been stopped.