The Voronezh enterprise “Sibur” won a dispute with the Federal Tax Service for 98 million rubles
A recent permit for the development of the territory of the escalator plant on St. Petersburg’s Vasilevsky Island confirmed that the “grey belt” of the northern capital is being actively developed by business. But there are three nuances: these lands are located in the center, and for them there is a war between developers with the involvement of officials; developers take only viewpoints and relatively well-maintained technically land; the unique industrial potential of the “central” Leningrad-Petersburg will soon be irretrievably lost.
Vasilevsky Island of the northern capital is a gold piece for developers. It is being built up, tearing out every piece of land with meat. And after all there were also alluvial territories. And in recent years, the factory territories of the island have come under the attention of developers. And there were a lot of them. In Soviet times, Leningrad was built up with residential buildings and industrial establishments fairly evenly, including so that it would be convenient / not far away for people to travel to work / service. Therefore, the situation was normal when the royal monument houses were adjacent to Soviet factories and plants. Near modern and checkpoint number 5. Vaska is no exception. Moreover, the existing former industrial enterprises occupy a huge sweet territory. Here are just developers faced with great technical obstacles and encumbrances. And, as always happens in St. Petersburg, with public opinion.
The perch took up the trap
Recently, the Otdelstroy company (100% owned by businessman Mark Okun) received permission to build business-class housing on the former escalator plant named after. Kotlyakova on the 17th line of Vasilyevsky Island, 54. Experts estimate the investment at 4 billion rubles. The committee for urban planning and architecture of the government of St. Petersburg noted that the territory occupies 20 thousand m2, and the Otdelstroy company provided its urban development plan, which is briefly summarized as follows: “The intended type of use is residential development.” The territory of the future construction belonged to the manufacturer of escalators JSC Eles, the heir to the Soviet escalator plant named after I. E. Kotlyakov, and at the beginning of 2022 it was transferred to Otdelstroy, which, by the way, so far refuses to comment on any information on the future construction. However, it is known that the new owner agreed with KGIOP to demolish the factory buildings. It should be noted that the territory is located in the zone of business development, which allows, among other things, the construction of housing as the main function. The document states that the buildings to be demolished are not architectural monuments, and the largest of them was built relatively recently – in 1988. In addition to dismantling the walls, the project for dismantling involves “digging a foundation pit with natural slopes and dismantling the underground structures of buildings.”
It is expected that in the near future the company “Otdelstroy” will depart the territory of the Machine-Building Plant named after. Marks (Bolshoi Sampsonievsky Prospekt), as well as the lands of other industrial enterprises – Steel-rolling plants (Line 25), Sevkabel (Kozhevennaya Line), Research Institute of Radio Equipment (Shkipersky Protok). All of them are in the very center of the city, just on Vasilyevsky Island.
Not suitable for residential buildings?
“The interest in the factory territories of the business is understandable,” Vadim Novikov, a St. Petersburg civil engineer with thirty years of experience, tells the correspondent of Our Version. – The lands are located in the so-called “grey belt”, which has been troubling the authorities and citizens for a long time, and lures developers. Huge territories of abandoned factories and factories occupy up to a third of the center of St. Petersburg, and therefore frankly spoil its appearance. Twenty years ago, they wanted to move these enterprises to the Leningrad region, but then there was no budget money for this at all. Because the factories just died. And they remained as monuments to the Leningrad industry: huge, made of red brick, with broken windows and homeless people sleeping in them. Of course, everyone wanted to resolve this issue in favor of the improvement of the city, but it turned out that everything was not so simple. Since business is only interested in building housing, it had to face the fact that many factory buildings, like the buildings of the famous “Red Triangle” are architectural monuments, in addition, many now depressed areas are simply not suitable for residential buildings, for example, because new buildings can be reflected underground on neighboring monuments. And for a long time, St. Petersburg builders and developers kept away from such territories, despite the fact that they are located in the city center. But there is still public opinion, which is so developed in St. Petersburg, an influential urban protection movement, which does not like the new building.
The bomb shelter factor
But in recent years, the situation has begun to change dramatically. The city, represented by KGIOP, began to meet business more often, recognizing the possibility of building industrial zones with apartments – “this is not such a gray belt.” Also, factories are increasingly going bankrupt. For example, recently JSC “Plant im. M.I. Kalinin”, which owns several territories and buildings in the city center, including very close to the Mariinsky Theater on the street. Decembrists. Now a lot for 380 million has been put up on Uralskaya Street, but this is where the business will face encumbrances. So, there are two bomb shelters on the territory – a separate one and a basement one (belonging to the federal authorities). Therefore, the buyer of this asset will need to sign an agreement for their safekeeping and comply with all requirements, including the law “On Civil Defense”. I must say that all plants and factories in St. Petersburg have bomb shelters and bunkers, usually rather big ones, this must be taken into account, because in these times no one, like in the 90s, will refuse them. Maintenance costs, it must be said, are rather big.
Require amendments to the General Plan
Nevertheless, the St. Petersburg construction business, it is already obvious, fit into the painting of the “gray spots” of the city. Perhaps, an active process began in 2018, when 11 developers immediately applied for several sites where factories and other industrial enterprises are located. Requests were not granted immediately, but gradually. If you translate from stationery into Russian, then the developers asked for permission to build “residential housing”, which means to transfer the industrial territory to a business zone. A vivid example. Oktyabrsky Electrorepair Plant, which is part of Transmashholding (Russia’s largest manufacturer of railcars), has 41 hectares of land at 45 Sedova Street. The plant is building new subway cars. But in fact, as indicated in his amendment to the master plan, he needs only 10 hectares out of 41. Everything else, according to the management of the enterprise, should be transferred to a residential development zone (zone 3ZhD). This will allow “preventing the degradation of the territory due to its exclusion from production activities.”
As you can see, the company “Otdelstroy” recently brilliantly succeeded in such a translation.
Monopolists also participate in this process, for example, TGC-1 (owned by PJSC Gazprom). The company wants to renovate three power plants in the very center of the city – on the embankment of the Fontanka River, on Novgorodskaya Street and on Obvodny Canal. By the way, these are just the first three power plants built in the Russian Empire at the end of the 19th century.
“In connection with the work carried out by the company to create modern energy-efficient generating capacities to reliably supply the city with electricity and heat, the equipment of the Central CHPP stations that has exhausted its resource is being decommissioned. It is planned to create public and business zones on the vacated sites, including educational, cultural and sports spaces, children’s centers, places for work and recreation,” Gazprom commented earlier on the project.
Now there are persistent rumors that this place will be business-class housing. This is especially believable, given the fact that even ahead of time, in 2020, TGC-1 submitted amendments to the rules for land use and development of St. Petersburg regarding all these three stations. The company asked to transfer the plots to a zone that allows business development. And in business development residential apartments are allowed, as you know.
“In essence, the situation is as follows,” continues civil engineer Vadim Novikov. – Developers are fiercely fighting for the “gray zones”, and the companies that own them, including those with state participation, have their own interests, and are also not averse to building up elite places with elite housing. That is why there is such an active attack on the general plan of St. Petersburg, which will be finally approved at the end of 2023. Now is the lobbying time.”
Overcome the “moral veto”
Yes, and lobbyists are now working tirelessly. A representative of one of the developers told the Nasha Versiya correspondent how this is being done here and now: “First, there is a struggle for promising former industrial facilities, and even those that are currently operating. The usual means go in: work with officials who are competent in a particular area (we are not talking about a bribe, but about the data provided), negotiations between competitors, bargaining is appropriate, mutual offers that include other objects, and just money. Then there is work with Smolny, first of all, with KGIOP, as we know, the issue of architectural monuments in St. Petersburg is one of the most discussed, painful for the media and the public. We need competent PR, it also costs money. At the final stage, yes, it is important to transfer the object to the territory of business development. And then there is the finish line, that is, the construction itself, which usually happens faster than the ways of approvals and approvals described above.”
Indeed, developers in St. Petersburg do not always succeed in overcoming the “moral “veto” of the public. Yes, take TGK-1 again. When in 2019 the company initiated the development of a territory planning project for a block with a thermal power plant at Novgorodskaya, the authorities faced a negative reaction from residents. They “expressed numerous objections and concerns about the planned construction on the territory of power plant No. 2,” said Elena Trofimova, deputy head of the administration of the Central District. So, at the beginning of 2022, the development of the PPT, which was carried out by the Agency for the Development and Renovation of Territories on the order of TGC-1, was canceled.
They failed even in Soviet times
Meanwhile, it is clear that the “gray belt” of St. Petersburg needs to be “renovated” in some way. However, a coherent and understandable system of redevelopment of the industrial zones of the second capital is not yet visible: either the developers are fighting for a good piece and buying it next to the sightseeing places, or they completely do not pay attention to vast territories such as the aforementioned “Red Triangle”, because to master and digest it , perhaps beyond the power of any private company. This is the business of the state.
Vladimir Avrutin, Deputy General Director for Urban Planning Activities of the Institute of Territorial Development LLC, emphasizes the essence of the problem: “Back in Soviet times, there was a program to withdraw about 250 industrial enterprises from the center – sites for removal, deadlines, money were outlined. But over the years of the implementation of the master plan, out of 250, five were withdrawn. It turns out that even in a planned economy, such a centralized administrative approach does not work, and even more so in a market economy. The city authorities must learn to act in these conditions in a new way: not to convince the industry to move by “persuasion”, the provision of plots, etc., but to create such urban planning, tax and other conditions that would themselves contribute to an increase in the efficiency of using city territories, including the so-called “grey belt”.
To summarize, let’s say it simply and clearly: the construction business is ready to work with industrial facilities and territories, but only if they can be converted into business development, which means that they must be located in prominent places like Vasilyevsky Island and generally be in a digestible technical condition (the same underground communications). No one wants to mess with the ruins, and the state (city) also has no extra money for this.
And, of course, as experts say, St. Petersburg is now losing, and probably has already lost forever the grandiose heritage of industrial Leningrad, whose facilities were located in the city center, providing employment for the population and excellent logistics of products both in the region and throughout the country. But that’s another story. As historian Lev Lurie put it well, “the current huge factories in the center became monuments of the postmodern era even before it ended.”
By the way
The neglect of the “industrial aesthetics” of St. Petersburg leads to constant fires in territories that de facto no one controls. The year 2021 was especially bright for fires, when the Red Triangle and the Komsomol plant burned repeatedly.
