City Hall last week approved the construction of a $200 million, 115,000-square-meter shopping mall underneath Paveletskaya Ploshchad in central Moscow.
The shopping center is the latest of a few massive underground retail developments that are due for completion in the city over the next few years.
The project will be developed by Tekhinvest, whose other projects in Moscow include construction of a $250 million, 75-story office building at the ongoing Moskva-City development on Krasnopresnenskaya Naberezhnaya.
Consisting of four below-ground floors, the trapezoid-shaped complex will feature stores -- including a 2,000- to 3,000-square-meter supermarket -- restaurants, a 10-screen multiplex, and a five-level underground parking lot.
According to the architectural concept, the shopping gallery will benefit from natural light through a glass-roofed atrium. The mall will also be connected to the Paveletskaya metro station by an underground passage. The appearance of the square itself will also change: A fountain and a park will be built on the currently unused area and the tramlines will be moved closer to the train station.
"The complex is not going to upset the arrangement of Paveletsky Station [built in 1900] or the square as a whole in any way," said architect Dmitry Solopov, one of the mall's designers, who presented the project to City Hall's architectural committee last week.
Construction is scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2005 and will take roughly two years. The development will cost between $150 million and $200 million, according to Maxim Gasiev, director of retail at Colliers International, the exclusive agent of the project, which also helped design its concept together with U.S.-based architectural bureau RTKL.
For comparison, the city's first and, to date, only underground mall -- the 62,000-square-meter Okhotny Ryad, located some 100 meters from the Kremlin wall -- was completed in 1997 for an estimated $300 million.
"Because of its exclusive location -- and the extensive and lengthy archaeological excavations that preceded its construction -- the price tag of this smaller project was so much higher," Gasiev said.
In addition to the Paveletsky project, Moscow's shoppers will have a handful of other subterranean malls to choose from over the coming years.
Turkey's MNG is expected to begin construction of the long-planned 96,500-square-meter shopping mall under Pushkin Square some time in 2005.
Israeli billionaire Lev Leviyev's Africa Israel Investments, through its Russian construction subsidiary, Stroiinkom-K, is planning to invest up to $200 million to build an underground shopping center and parking lot under the square in front of Belorussky Station. The project is scheduled for completion in 2008.
The area around Paveletsky Station, an unappealing industrial zone in Soviet days, has been turned into a booming business district in recent years with the completion of such Class-A office projects as Paveletsky Towers, Riverside Towers and Aurora Business Park.
"This area has become one of the main condensed commercial hubs in Moscow, and adding a retail and leisure component to it will only improve the popularity of this location," said Michael Lange, managing director at real estate consultant Jones Lang LaSalle, one of the dozens of international firms that have offices around Paveletsky Station.
"A large mall could become a very nice addition to further the attractiveness of this area," he added.
"It's a great location that is currently lacking in retail," agreed Jeff Kershaw, director of the retail department at Noble Gibbons in association with CB Richard Ellis.
However, Kershaw said that underground construction is very expensive, which would lengthen the project's payback period. But, because of architectural considerations, in the case of Paveletsky, the developers had no choice but to put it underground, he added.
Paveletsky's main competitor in the city will be another large downtown mall -- Atrium near Kursky Station -- but the Paveletsky location is more advantageous, Gasiev said."The area's status as a business district will affect the shopping center's customer base to a large degree. But the demand for quality shopping will remain high enough for both Atrium and Paveletsky to attract enough customers," he added.
The shopping center is the latest of a few massive underground retail developments that are due for completion in the city over the next few years.
The project will be developed by Tekhinvest, whose other projects in Moscow include construction of a $250 million, 75-story office building at the ongoing Moskva-City development on Krasnopresnenskaya Naberezhnaya.
Consisting of four below-ground floors, the trapezoid-shaped complex will feature stores -- including a 2,000- to 3,000-square-meter supermarket -- restaurants, a 10-screen multiplex, and a five-level underground parking lot.
According to the architectural concept, the shopping gallery will benefit from natural light through a glass-roofed atrium. The mall will also be connected to the Paveletskaya metro station by an underground passage. The appearance of the square itself will also change: A fountain and a park will be built on the currently unused area and the tramlines will be moved closer to the train station.
"The complex is not going to upset the arrangement of Paveletsky Station [built in 1900] or the square as a whole in any way," said architect Dmitry Solopov, one of the mall's designers, who presented the project to City Hall's architectural committee last week.
Construction is scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2005 and will take roughly two years. The development will cost between $150 million and $200 million, according to Maxim Gasiev, director of retail at Colliers International, the exclusive agent of the project, which also helped design its concept together with U.S.-based architectural bureau RTKL.
For comparison, the city's first and, to date, only underground mall -- the 62,000-square-meter Okhotny Ryad, located some 100 meters from the Kremlin wall -- was completed in 1997 for an estimated $300 million.
"Because of its exclusive location -- and the extensive and lengthy archaeological excavations that preceded its construction -- the price tag of this smaller project was so much higher," Gasiev said.
In addition to the Paveletsky project, Moscow's shoppers will have a handful of other subterranean malls to choose from over the coming years.
Turkey's MNG is expected to begin construction of the long-planned 96,500-square-meter shopping mall under Pushkin Square some time in 2005.
Israeli billionaire Lev Leviyev's Africa Israel Investments, through its Russian construction subsidiary, Stroiinkom-K, is planning to invest up to $200 million to build an underground shopping center and parking lot under the square in front of Belorussky Station. The project is scheduled for completion in 2008.
The area around Paveletsky Station, an unappealing industrial zone in Soviet days, has been turned into a booming business district in recent years with the completion of such Class-A office projects as Paveletsky Towers, Riverside Towers and Aurora Business Park.
"This area has become one of the main condensed commercial hubs in Moscow, and adding a retail and leisure component to it will only improve the popularity of this location," said Michael Lange, managing director at real estate consultant Jones Lang LaSalle, one of the dozens of international firms that have offices around Paveletsky Station.
"A large mall could become a very nice addition to further the attractiveness of this area," he added.
"It's a great location that is currently lacking in retail," agreed Jeff Kershaw, director of the retail department at Noble Gibbons in association with CB Richard Ellis.
However, Kershaw said that underground construction is very expensive, which would lengthen the project's payback period. But, because of architectural considerations, in the case of Paveletsky, the developers had no choice but to put it underground, he added.
Paveletsky's main competitor in the city will be another large downtown mall -- Atrium near Kursky Station -- but the Paveletsky location is more advantageous, Gasiev said."The area's status as a business district will affect the shopping center's customer base to a large degree. But the demand for quality shopping will remain high enough for both Atrium and Paveletsky to attract enough customers," he added.
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