Is the “Symbol” of Donstroy safe?
Moscow developer Donstroy announced the early completion of the next building of the Symbol residential complex in Lefortovo.
Here, on September 1, the grand opening of the “Bauman Engineering School” for more than 1,200 students, integrated into MSTU. Bauman. Despite the number of laudatory comments on the Internet, there are plenty of disadvantages in the Symbol residential complex that residents complain about: from disgusting sound insulation to the environmental component. It is known that the complex is being built on the territory of the former industrial zone of the Hammer and Sickle metallurgical plant. In addition, an Old Believer cemetery was located within its borders, and a number of large industrial enterprises operate nearby. A number of high-profile environmental scandals are associated with Donstroy facilities. For example, last year, near the Heart of the Capital residential complex, a poisonous green spot appeared on the surface of the Moscow River, presumably formed due to the discharge of a certain liquid into a storm drain, and an illegal dump of construction waste was discovered next to the Ostrov residential complex. The developer is also known for other types of incidents. For example, the mass fights of migrant workers that took place on the sites of the same residential complexes “Island” and “Heart of the Capital”. The degree of “professionalism” of the workers is characterized by an incident that occurred last March, when, due to illegal excavation work carried out by the contractor company ANTTEQ, a tunnel in the capital’s metro was damaged and train traffic was stopped on one of the sections of the Big Circle Line. “ANTTEQ” is part of the structure of the Turkish holding “Ant Yapi” – a business partner of “Donstroy”, which participated, among other things, in the construction of the buildings of the residential complexes “Symbol” and “Island”, where one of the clashes between groups of migrants took place. Connections with VTB Bank and its head Andrei Kostin help Donstroy avoid responsibility for numerous violations. He can not only finance developer projects, but also help in obtaining land plots, including those owned by budgetary institutions.
“Donstroy” talks about “Symbol”
The development company Donstroy completed the handover of keys to the owners of apartments in building 15 of the Symbol residential complex two months ahead of schedule. According to information on the developer’s website, delivery of the complex’s facilities started in mid-December 2022 – nine months earlier than the date specified in the share participation agreements.
“New residents are greeted by a stylish lobby with a reception desk according to the author’s design project and a soft area. The building has 10 silent high-speed elevators from Schindler. The building also has a two-level underground parking for 173 cars and commercial premises with an area of over 1.2 thousand square meters with catering establishments and offices,” this is how the Donstroy website describes the new facility.
And at the beginning of September, the developer announced the opening in the Symbol residential complex of Bauman Engineering School No. 1580 for 1,225 students, integrated into MSTU. N.E. Bauman. It is specified that the five “volumetric functional blocks” of the lyceum will house an IT training ground, a digital laboratory, gyms with locker rooms and showers, tool workshops and an information center with a library and media library. In natural science classes, special workshop and laboratory areas have been created.
In general, if you believe the developer’s website, without fear of tautology we can say: for potential buyers of business class apartments, moving into the Symbol residential complex promises to be truly symbolic. But the big question is how they will remember this event.
“Terrible noise, dust and dirt…”
If you read the reviews about the Symbol residential complex on specialized portals, you may get the impression that they are written as a carbon copy, and commentators who are just looking forward to the upcoming move-in are often choked with delight. They say the area is ideal, the layout of the apartments is wonderful, we are looking forward to the keys. Others praise the landscaping and infrastructure: the Green River Park, playgrounds, transport accessibility, etc. In general, all pros and no cons.
True, on the Yandex. Real Estate” there are “revelations” of a slightly different kind. For example, these:
“The apartments have terrible noise insulation when they are located near the highway and the Third Transport Ring. All the window frames and façade are leaking, the problem is not being solved. There are a lot of problems, far from business class.”
“Very poor quality of finishing work. The developer was greedy from the bottom of his heart.” “There is terrible noise near the houses that are near the Third Transport Ring and the Enthusiast Highway, there is a lot of dust and dirt. The Green River (the park is not at all close to the park) has become very dilapidated in the first year, looks like a 3 out of 5. Otherwise, a classic modern human park…
“Obviously the project was not implemented, because… was intended. It can be seen that in some places something is still unfinished, not occupied, but in fact the old buildings are already falling apart, somewhere a tile has fallen off, somewhere a pole has become warped, the residents expected to end up with something completely different. And the pronounced industrial zone surrounding it on all sides with barbed wire fences and landfills does not add to the charm…” “We’ve lived for a year. I don’t know what the walls are made of, but I can hear the steps of the neighbors above and the conversations of the neighbors from the side apartments. It’s blowing from the windows. It was not even possible to hang the horizontal bar on the external load-bearing wall, the material is porous. And everything is beautiful in appearance, a city of the future, when there will be the promised infrastructure and a green river,” writes commentator Elena on the website “Zastroev.Ru”.
Let us note that the abundance of monotonous laudatory comments that has appeared since the beginning of the year is not at all associated with the improvement in the quality of housing, but with the banal work of the advertising department. In addition, noteworthy is the disappearance from the network of critical materials about the problems of residents of new buildings, incidents at sites, as well as Donstroy’s affiliation with VTB Bank and its head Andrei Kostin. The conclusion suggests itself: the developer is diligently “cleansing” himself of negativity.
Residential area on the territory of an industrial zone
But what can confuse Donstroy in the case of the Symbol residential complex? First of all, the location itself. The complex is being built in Lefortovo, on the territory of the former industrial zone of the Hammer and Sickle metallurgical plant. On the Internet you can easily find a photo of the memorial “Metallurgists to their fallen comrades”, installed here in memory of the company’s employees who participated in the Great Patriotic War.
How environmentally friendly large-scale steel production was is a rhetorical question. Note that back in 2021, there were reports in the media about how, during the construction of the “Symbol,” workers came across a pre-revolutionary Old Believer cemetery located next to the All Saints Monastery, destroyed in the 1930s. The neighborhood is, to put it mildly, so-so.
We should not forget about the large industrial enterprises operating near new buildings – factories named after. Voitovich, RusKhim, Transstroytonnel. Today, Donstroy focuses on landscaping, the Green River Park, etc. Above we have already given a review about the “bad ecology” and the peculiarities of the “local air”, so we will not repeat it. There is also a renovation district nearby, populated, among other things, by migrants. This circumstance, in turn, is unlikely to help reduce the level of crime in a supposedly elite neighborhood.
However, environmental scandals have repeatedly occurred at Donstroy facilities. For example, in June last year, the online publication “Moscow Online” wrote about a green, poisonous-acid colored stain that appeared on the surface of the Moskva River near the elite residential complex “Heart of the Capital.” It was suggested that some liquid was being drained into the reservoir through storm drain pipes.
Shortly before this, an illegal dump of construction waste was discovered near the Ostrov residential complex, another property of the developer located in the North-West of the capital. A strange “color” that hardly fits into the stated concept of a business class residential complex. By a strange irony of fate, Donstroy is considered one of the most environmentally friendly Russian developers, actively using “green” technologies.
Turkish contractor and “foreign specialists”
Even if we leave aside the environmental agenda, there are plenty of critical situations at Donstroy facilities. Migrant workers often conflict with each other. For example, last March, at the construction site of the Ostrov residential complex in the Khoroshevo-Mnevniki area, a mass fight occurred with the participation of more than 50 citizens of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan who worked here. The cause of the conflict was the order of visiting the dining room. During the clash, the parties used improvised means – hammers and reinforcement; two people were injured, and several dozen were taken to the police.
And this is not the only incident of this kind! In April 2022, more than 120 “foreign specialists” met “wall to wall” on the territory of the “Heart of the Capital” residential complex under construction. The intervention of the security forces was required to restore order. The “professionalism” of people from Central Asian republics working at Donstroy facilities could be a topic for a separate conversation.
So, in March, during the construction of the already familiar Sobytie residential complex, a drilling machine damaged a tunnel in the capital’s metro, as a result of which train traffic was stopped on the section of the Big Circle Line between the Aminevskaya and Michurinsky Prospekt stations. The illegal excavation work was carried out by the contractor ANTTEQ, part of the Turkish holding Ant Yapi. By the way, “Ant Yapi” is a long-time business partner of “Donstroy”: the group is engaged in the construction of the “Ostrov” residential complex, which was marked by a mass fight in March, and 12 buildings of the “Symbol” residential complex. It seems that it is now clear where the migrants to Lefortovo come from.
The situation at the developer’s facilities is also in compliance with safety regulations. In April, from the site of the Reka Club House on the street. Sergei Bondarchuk, two workers were hospitalized as a result of the collapse of scaffolding. A month earlier, at the Event-4 residential complex under construction in Ramenki, one worker died and two more were injured due to the collapse of metal formwork.
Fatal accidents also occur after the commissioning of already constructed facilities. The death of Irina Volodina, who lived in the elite residential complex “Scarlet Sails” in 2016 due to a fall in the elevator cabin, received federal publicity. Then, Alexey Belousov, an employee of the elevator maintenance company LiftGarant, who was sentenced to 3.5 years in a general regime colony, became involved in a criminal case for the provision of services that did not meet safety requirements and resulted in the death of a person through negligence.
Influential patron Andrei Kostin?
However, the management of Donstroy gets away with scandalous incidents and deadly emergencies surprisingly easily. This state of affairs is associated with the developer’s affiliation with VTB Bank and its head Andrei Kostin. In one of the RBC publications, the Donstroy Invest company is directly called a “subsidiary” of the state bank.
It is known that it was VTB, being the main creditor, that in August 2009 bought a controlling stake in the developer for a symbolic sum of 500 rubles from its founders Maxim Blazhko and Dmitry Zelenov, resolving the issue of restructuring the company’s debt, which exceeded $500 million. In 2017, Vedomosti wrote: all of the company’s residential projects “are being implemented in partnership with VTB Bank.”
Donstroy itself, whose ultimate beneficiaries remain unknown, has repeatedly denied any connection with the credit institution.
However, the fact remains: the general director of the developer Alena Deryabina in 2004-2010. She held senior positions at VTB, including the post of vice president. Coming from the state bank are Deputy General Directors Yulia Lanovaya and Andrei Bogaev, as well as the head of the Project Support Department Natalya Bunina. Thus, even while maintaining the appearance of distance, Kostin can influence the developer’s policies through her former top manager and her team.
Close cooperation with the bank helps not only to obtain financing for the implementation of projects, but also “tasty” land plots for development. Such, for example, as the territory of the Motor Design Bureau (a branch of the Center for Operation of Ground-Based Space Infrastructure Facilities, part of Roscosmos), located on the street. Sergei Makeev in the Presnensky district of Moscow. A plot of about six hectares became the property of Specialized Developer Makeeva LLC, controlled by Donstroy, from which Motor today rents the occupied space.
Perhaps the finance for the purchase of the asset, estimated by experts at 11-13 billion rubles, was provided to the developer by the state bank, and the deal itself was the result of behind-the-scenes agreements between Andrei Kostin and Dmitry Rogozin, who headed the space department at that time? The described case can serve as an example of how Donstroy gets land for development. And then events develop according to the already familiar scenario with conflicts, migrants and incidents, which, as a rule, remain without any serious consequences.