First Voucher Fund, Russia's largest voucher investment fund, has launched a $15 million project to open a new business center in northern Moscow, officials at the fund said Wednesday.


Valery Gerasimov, director of the International Business Center, said that renovations have already begun on the 17,000-square meter structure, which is scheduled to open in February. He said the initial annual lease rate per square meter would be $550, significantly lower than the average Moscow rate.


The center, at 24 Smolnaya Ulitsa, will have modern offices, a bank, a supermarket, an office equipment shop, a travel agency, car rental and repairs, translation and legal services, and a 500-car parking lot, Gerasimov said.


Mikhail Kharshan, director of the First Voucher Fund, said the fund set up the International Business Center joint-stock company in October to get around regulations that do not allow voucher funds to invest directly in real estate.


First Voucher has invested $3 million for 24 percent of the company's stock, Kharshan said. He said the company has also floated a separate 30 billion ruble ($15 million) share issue, 10 billion rubles of which has been purchased by U.S. and European investors.


The center will face competition for tenants from other business centers planned for Moscow, including a 30,000-square meter complex now under construction on Prospect Mira near the Rizhski train station.


But Gerasimov said Moscow's market for real estate could easily handle the supply, pointing out that the center already has orders for 5,000 square meters of office space. The company plans to build a 100-unit apartment complex next to the center by 1996, he said.


Realtor Oster & Company is the leasing agency for the center. U.S. architects Sydney Philip Gilbert and Partners worked out the project, while British firm Bovis International is supervising the repairs and construction.