Why is the ZDS Group completing construction after others, although it has missed deadlines more than once

The media continues to review construction companies and developers in St. Petersburg. Next up is CDS.

We will tell you why for many years the organization has been associated with city holidays and boxing thanks to its general director, and in the profile plan it actively developed the neighboring areas of the Leningrad Region, which are now de facto merged with the city. From the characteristic – CDS one of the first companies began to focus on the construction of shopping centers in residential buildings, and also focuses on apartments with small footage.

The construction company CDS or the CDS Group (both names are current) was founded in 1999. Currently acts as a builder, customer, contractor and investor. The Center for Shared Construction Group has three subsidiaries – LLC LenStroyUpravlenie, LLC GlavVoenStroy, LLC ISK Center for Shared Construction. The company’s management has never hidden its positioning – economy-class housing and shopping malls built into residential buildings.

Let’s start with advertising and promotion of the company. CDS about ten years ago led a kind of social PR promotion. Best of all, it turned out … in boxing. The fact is that the permanent general director Mikhail Medvedev was quite seriously involved in this sport, and in 2012 he headed the board of trustees of the St. Petersburg Boxing Federation. At the same time, a colleague of the Nasha Versiya correspondent said: “The CDS is ordering an advertising article. But not about construction sites and apartments, but about boxing. Then the federation, thanks to the financial participation of Medvedev, constantly held large commercial tournaments with the participation of the leading athletes of the CIS. It was necessary to write specifically about the competition, with an analysis of the fights, and from the advertising only twice in the article to mention that the head of the board of trustees of the boxing federation, as well as the general director of the CDS, said this and that. Quite an unusual format for an advertising article for this market.”

The correspondent of Nasha Versiya also recalls how the GK TsDS staged reenactment shows near the Peter and Paul Fortress in honor of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Borodino. There were right after Mikhail Lermontov, horses, people who mingled, and even invited Frenchmen. That is, the promotions of the CDS at that time (there are almost none now) were not direct action, but were a kind of indirect advertising, partly social. Here is a classic example of this kind of article, you can read it here.

The abbreviation CDS is sometimes deciphered by some equity holders as the “Center for a Long Building”. Indeed, the average delay in the delivery of an object from a company in some cases is 6 months (sometimes several years), and this value is constant. However, let’s get back to longevity. In the meantime, fresh figures: in 2022, the CDS put into operation about 550 thousand square meters. m in seven residential complexes. This is 8733 apartments. Ivan Nosov, marketing and advertising director of the developer, naturally speaks about the company’s achievements, emphasizing the social component: “In 2022, we rented two schools for a total of 665 places in the Severny and Polyustrovo CDS. We also handed over to the local authorities four kindergartens for a total of 735 places in the LCD CCC Elizarovsky, CCC Moskovsky, Novoe Yanino and CCC Polustrovo. Almost all of them are already open. We are fully equipping social facilities in the Leningrad Region with everything you need, from furniture to toys.”

Thus, the CDS is proud of its participation in city programs on transport infrastructure. “Another road object of this year is the continuation of Garage passage in Bugry. The highway connects section 7 of the New Horizons residential complex with the quarters of Western Murino, allowing you to quickly get to the station. m “Devyatkino” and go to the ring road,” emphasizes Mr. Nosov.

Yes, indeed, the main troubles of new settlers of almost all St. Petersburg developers are social programs. There are few schools, kindergartens, parking lots, transport accessibility to the nearest metro station is limited. However, this applies not only to St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region.

It should be noted that today, in 2023, residential complexes are being built by 8 companies, the contractor of which is CDS. Yes, all of the listed residential complexes are designed for the mass market, small apartments in the so-called “anthills”. CDS staked on this from the very beginning, at the very beginning of its activity on the market. On the company’s website, the concept officially reads as follows: “Basic apartments (“BK-standard”) have a small area, a separate kitchen of 8-9 sq.m., one or more isolated rooms from 15 to 18 sq.m. and a balcony or loggia 3-4 sq. m. The total area of ​​a one-room apartment “BK-standard” is about 33-35 square meters.

However, out of 30 properties commissioned over 24 years, the developer still has two residential complexes of “comfort” status – in the elite suburbs of St. Petersburg, Pushkin and Repino.

Now to deadlines and delivery. Yes, many real estate investors receive their apartment keys 6 months late. However, long-term construction is typical for almost all St. Petersburg construction companies, and, as they say, cases are different. And in recent years, the situation with the terms of delivery to the CDS has improved markedly.

Perhaps, in terms of scandal, the Parkolovo residential complex in the Primorsky district was most memorable. Here is what one of the Petersburgers writes on the social network: “There is not a single school in the environment. Poor transport accessibility. Metro is far. The trade and social infrastructure is still poorly developed. Near the cemetery. Sometimes there is an unpleasant smell from greenhouses, which are located nearby. You can’t get into kindergartens and schools nearby, in neighboring residential complexes – you have to travel far, and traffic jams are great. In the apartments themselves, you hear absolutely everything that the neighbors do, not only from above, but also on the sides. Audibility is colossal!

There was a lot of negativity around the 17-storey building in Devyatkino. There is a personal story on the irecommend.ru website: “The most, in my opinion, the most significant drawback of the CDS is a terrible long-term construction and failure to meet deadlines. At first, our house, according to the contract, was to be built in 2 years, and how beautifully they lured – “after 2 years you move in, and then you pay for another 3 years …”. It’s good that we had a place to live, but if you rent a house, be prepared for the fact that you will have to rent it for several years longer than you planned in anticipation of the joyful moment of housewarming. So we signed an agreement in 2005, the deadline was first in 2007, then smoothly moved to 2008, but in the end we received the keys … in 2010. In general, the construction just stretched out for the period of our payments. And after five years, the apartment began to rapidly collapse: the ceilings were covered with giant cracks, the walls too, not an apartment, but a barn … “. And there are a lot of such opinions, stories and reviews on the Internet, although, of course, whether to believe them or not is a personal matter for everyone.

But last year in the Leningrad region, the ZDS Group just picked up one large long-term construction after the bankruptcy of the Petrostroy construction company. There are three LCDs. The completion of the work, according to the Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Leningrad Region Yevgeny Baranovsky, is the end of this year. Preliminary CDS will have to invest 700 million rubles. And the year before last, the CDS completed the construction of the Raduzhny residential complex in Lenoblsti, abandoned by the Glavstroykompleks company.

Let’s note the know-how – GK CDS was one of the first in Russia to build shopping centers built into residential complexes. There are quite a few of these now, already somewhat outdated, in the aforementioned Primorsky district, and this year a multifunctional complex in Novosaratovka near St. Petersburg will be commissioned: housing, plus a shopping center, plus a school and a kindergarten. The same applies to the residential complex “New Murino” also on the border of the city and the region. Now such “cities within a city” are common, but twenty years ago, the CDS was one of the pioneers of the “all inclusive” option.