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City to Consider New Plans for Rossiya Site

Moscow authorities may consider a plan for developing the Hotel Rossiya complex as early as this month, Deputy Mayor Vladimir Silkin said Friday.

"I think that the project will be proposed to the council for urban construction for consideration in March or April," he told Interfax.

City Hall is considering several business plans for the development of the hotel, he said, adding that one proposed by Jones Lang LaSalle was one of the most promising.

The plans proposed by consulting companies specify "how many hotels, movie theaters and restaurants there will be on the territory and how they will fit the general concept of the district," said Silkin, who is also head of the City Hall's Property Department.

Jones Lang LaSalle's strategic consulting department, which developed the business plan, was unavailable for comment Friday.

The announcement comes after the Moscow Arbitration Court dismissed the latest in a series of lawsuits against City Hall officials filed by the exiled tycoon Shalva Chigirinsky's ST Development, an investor in the project to demolish and reconstruct Hotel Rossiya.

ST Development was forced to halt construction on the hotel in 2008 after demolishing the original building because the company fell into dire financial straits.

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