Moscow-City To Get 2 New Skyscrapers
Business center Moscow-City is set to receive two new skyscrapers over the next two years, according to a news release from the Moscow city government's construction overseer Mosgosstroinadzor.
One of the towers will be a 49-floor office complex, while the other tower will stack up to 85 floors and be used as a hotel and residential building.
The office half will go into use by the end of this year. Work is nearly completed, with the exception of decorative work on the building's facade and its connection to the electrical grid, according to the statement released last week. The hotel portion will go on the market by the end of 2016.
Construction on the buildings began in 2007 and was suspended in 2008, only to resume again in 2010.
Lisario Trading Limited and the Russian branch of Turkish construction company Ant Yapi are serving as developer and general contractor, respectively. (MT)
Gref Plugs Mostovik to Build Kerch Bridge
Sberbank chief German Gref is lobbying for Mostovik — a major Russian construction company that has declared bankruptcy due to losses endured in construction for the Sochi Olympics — to be named general contractor for the construction of a bridge over the Kerch Strait to Crimea.
Although it is not yet clear what form the bridge will take, the government is evaluating Mostovik's proposal, Vedomosti reported last week.
The only parameters currently set for the project are that it will be a two-story bridge with four lanes and two railway tracks.
Mostovik filed for bankruptcy in April, at which time Sberbank sued the company for 18.9 billion rubles ($530 million) — nearly half of the company's 40 billion ruble ($1.1 billion) debt. In May the state-owned bank received a 20 percent share in the company and announced that it would participate in its management, including helping the builder win new contracts.
An unidentified state official told Vedomosti that Mostovik would charge less than 200 billion rubles ($5.6 billion) to build the bridge. Experts in the employ of state road builder Avtodor previously estimated the total cost of the project at 283 billion rubles ($8 billion). (MT)
Usmanov Eyes Vnukovo Airport
Russia's richest man, Alisher Usmanov, could buy a stake in Moscow airport Vnukovo, Vedomosti reported Monday, citing unnamed sources close to Usmanov and the airport's current shareholders.
The deal could be closed after the airport's assets, which are currently split among several companies with different shareholders, are consolidated into one legal entity, as per President Vladimir Putin's instructions to all major Russian airports last year.
Vnukovo is Moscow's third-largest airport, serving more than 11 million passengers in 2013. One consultant told Vedomosti that the facility likely rakes in about $450 million annually.
The plans for consolidation of Vnukovo's assets are within a hair's breadth of being approved by the Federal Property Management Agency, Vedomosti quoted one source and a state official as saying. The state will likely have a 25 percent plus one share in the airport, the source said. The government plans to privatize its stake in the airport in 2016. (MT)
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