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Mitino Park Project Suspended

Siding with protests by Moscow residents, the Mayor’s Office has suspended the construction of a sports and recreational center under the wing of hockey icon Vladislav Tretyak in Mitino park.

The project no longer complies with the terms under which investors were granted exclusive permission to develop a 50,000 square meter plot in Mitino in 2000, according to a report by Moscow’s urban planning and land commission.

The commission says the initial parameters gave the Czech group PFF and Russian real estate developer ADG Group the right to use 18,000 square meters of the property for commercial purposes, as long as 25,000 square meters would be allocated to an ice palace for Vladislav Tretyak’s sports academy. Tennis courts, a fitness club and other sports facilities would account for the remaining land.

The project’s license was revoked after it became clear only 11,000 square meters would be allocated to the ice palace, leaving a much vaster area prone to commercial exploitation than agreed upon earlier and breaching legislation that limits such commercial ventures within the city.

“All the developers know that to build shopping centers within the Third Ring Road is not possible. These are the rules of the game,” said Konstantin Kovalev, managing partner at Blackwood realtor, Kommersant reported.

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