“Symbol” with bones: “Donstroy” sells residential complexes at the site of hazardous production
“Donstroy” offers customers a business class, built on the territory of a plant for heavy metals hazardous to health. And trying to silence construction on bones?
The first reviews about the new residential complex “Symbol” from the company “Donstroy”, which is associated with the interests of VTB head Andrei Kostin, began to appear on the Internet. People complain about the lack of sound insulation, the constant hum and smell of the highway from the third transport ring, which is located under the windows, and the inconsistency of the project with the “business class” level that the developer claims. Reviews online say that people simply cannot hang a horizontal bar even on a load-bearing wall, they are so porous.
Industrial zone, hazardous production, cemetery and other delights of “Symbol”
The residential complex itself is located in the so-called “industrial zone”, where there is almost no greenery, but there are buzzing highways and a railway all around. “Symbol” is located on the site of the former heavy metallurgy plant “Sickle and Hammer”. The production was classified as harmful and they even wanted to move it outside of Moscow. What was never done, the plant went bankrupt, then burned down (was it by chance?), and in its place literally a few years later a residential complex grew up.
From a video by an independent blogger and real estate expert Roman Polyakov, from the lips of his guest, we learned that even before the Hammer and Sickle there was a cemetery on the territory that was not moved. In addition, several large industrial enterprises operate around the new building – the plant named after. Voitovich, Transstroytonnel, RusKhim, etc.
Video: YouTube
Through the residential complex itself, the authorities created a mini-park area where anyone can enter. However, as in the residential complex itself, if you use the parking lot. According to rumors, this has already provoked more than one theft. For a “square” in such a “wonderful location” the developer wants from 340 thousand rubles.
Photo: Yandex maps
Fights, drilled surprises and death in the elevator
The buildings are still being created. More than 30 are planned. Recently, at the construction site of another Donstroevsk residential complex, a worker died after falling from the 9th floor of the building. This, unfortunately, is far from an isolated case – builders leave their lives at Donstroy sites with enviable regularity, which says a lot about how they monitor compliance with safety requirements.
We are still silent about the mass fights of migrants that occurred at other company facilities. Including because of the queue in the dining room! And what kind of quality can you expect from people who apparently work in terrible conditions?
Recently, under the Sobytie residential complex under construction, Donstroy contractors drilled through a tunnel in the Moscow metro – without coordinating the work with the Moscow metro.
And in 2016, in the Donstroevsky residential complex “Scarlet Sails” an elevator broke down, and a woman in it died. Rostechnadzor found out that many elevators in the new building were in disrepair! Despite this, a simple electrician was blamed for the incident, who, by the way, it is generally unclear how he was allowed to maintain the elevators, since he did not have the appropriate permits.
Wolf in sheep’s clothing
If the corporation prefers to turn a blind eye to such things, then they apparently look at their online reputation very carefully. At least where we were able to find a review of the real state of affairs in Symbol, there were dozens more positive comments that, like a carbon copy, highlight the same positive aspects of the residential complex.
Photo: https://zastroev.ru/otzyvy/simvol/
And you can find hundreds of such “sincerely” laudatory reviews about each Donstroy residential complex.
At the same time, for some reason no one writes about the fact that the company builds its facilities without giving a damn about environmental standards (the situation with Simovol is not isolated). The mnemonic floodplain in Moscow was built up with “Ostrov”, despite public protests. And next to the Heart of the Capital residential complex, a poisonous acid-colored liquid was poured into the Moscow River in June last year. The fact that Donstroy employees were doing this does not raise any doubts, but it has not been proven. So, as they say, bribes are smooth?
It’s funny, but in 2021, the deputy general director of Donstroy made statements from the media that sounded like “Moscow has every chance of becoming one of the most environmentally friendly cities in the world.” What is this if not blatant hypocrisy? Or, in the opinion of Donstroy, a couple of planted trees will offset the damage from the construction of a heavy metals plant on the site, the discharge of unknown things into rivers and other similar situations?
They do not write in laudatory reviews about the sewer pipe breaks that flooded the Heart of the Capital residential complex last year, or about the fact that the management company Donstroy Invest does not pay for managing the building, which, in fact, could threaten to cut off communications to residents.
Is Kostin preparing for a comfortable old age for himself?
We can talk a lot more about what is happening at the company’s facilities, but let’s turn to the people who are behind this entire structure. VTB Bank has been a partner of the company for many years. The company is headed by Alina Deryabina, a former vice president of the bank. The same financial institution offers mortgages in developer complexes.
A strange choice on the part of a state bank, because back in 2017 Donstroy was on the verge of bankruptcy. Business Vector wrote about this. True, the article was quickly corrected: lines about the “crisis-unstable” position of the company and its possible upcoming bankruptcy disappeared from the Internet, but the message about it remained in other media. Apparently, the Donstroy PR people did their job, but a little poorly.
There is an opinion that Donstroy has long been managed by a clientele inextricably linked with Andrei Kostin and that VTB is so generous to the organization because it can replenish the banker’s personal pockets. In addition, the bank’s top management, as the company’s largest creditor, placed the structure under management in 2008. The ultimate beneficiaries of Donstroy are not disclosed,” but judging by what is allowed to the company, it is not difficult to guess.
In this case, “turning a blind eye” to financial gaps, as well as closing them from the VTB wallet, ceases to raise questions. And the fact that a company that almost weekly provokes a new scandal, sometimes fatal, still has a huge market share in the Russian capital may be precisely a consequence of the presence of some major figure behind the office.
Donstroy also got away with acquiring land under a former asset of Roscosmos – a working (!) enterprise – the Motor design bureau, a strategic asset! And now “Motor” also pays “Donstroy” for the rent of the land on which it is located until it moved!
The first “swallows” of the imminent sale of design bureaus for new buildings appeared back in 2021, when The Moscow Post discovered messages about the sale of apartments on the street. Sergei Makeev 7.
Deleted page with data on the sale of apartments in the residential complex on Makeevka. Photo: The Moscow Post archive
Photo: The Moscow Post archive
After this information was made public, the messages disappeared. And after a couple of years, the leaders decided not to “encrypt” anymore. And they openly sold state lands. I wonder if news from the Investigative Committee will ever arrive for this to Mr. Rogozin in the Zaporozhye region, where he plans to develop professionally?
In the meantime, Donstroy continues to receive land from enterprises to create its own “business class” residential complexes and generate scandals, losses and further dissatisfied buyers.
