The Moscow Times

Work on the $50 million Chistiye Prudy project, consisting of upmarket
residential buildings occupying an entire block in the city center, is set to
begin.
The 22,000-square-meter project, described by its developers as Moscow's first
"elite quarter," will be located at the intersection of Podsosensky Pereulok and
Barashevsky Pereulok, halfway between the Chistiye Prudy metro station and the
Garden Ring. It will occupy 0.6 hectares and feature a seven-story building with
12 apartments, a four-story building with 12 apartments, two mansions -- 882 and
1,800 square meters in size, respectively -- and four 887-square-meter
single-residence houses.
Chistiye Prudy's developer is the privately held firm Yevropeiskoye
Ekologicheskoye Soobshchestvo, or European Ecological Association, which has
renovated several historic buildings in downtown Moscow since its foundation in
1992. The project is partially financed by Impexbank.
Despite its large size and developed infrastructure, including multilevel
underground parking and top-notch security systems and engineering, the project
is meant for no more than 30 families.
The first three buildings -- including the two mansions, which were designed
with a residence or a company's representative office in mind -- are expected to
be completed this year, with the remainder of the project scheduled for
completion in late 2006.
"A complex-based approach to elite housing construction is a reflection of a new
tendency of planned development in this market segment," said Konstantin
Kovalyov, managing partner at the realtor Blackwood, which was chosen as the
consultant and exclusive agent for the project. "The old tradition of building
socially uniform housing districts is starting to revive. In the next two to
three years, this quarter has the potential to become Moscow's most prestigious
and expensive."
Moscow's elite residential segment is dominated by separate apartment blocks, as
until now there have been only two similar, albeit smaller, developments in
central Moscow: the 14,000-square-meter Palaty Muravyovykh, or Muravyov
Chambers, on Ulitsa Ostozhenka, consisting of 17 townhouses; and the
10,000-square-meter Tri Topolya, or Three Poplars, on Ulitsa Plyushchikha, with
seven townhouses and a six-story, 12-apartment building.
"Given the area's historic surroundings, office complexes and developed
infrastructure, as well as the almost complete absence of similar offers there,
space in the project is bound to be in demand," said Svetlana Puchkova, a
specialist in the elite residential department at Delight Realty.
However, she noted that due to strong competition from other Moscow districts --
such as Ostozhenka or Arbat -- in order to attract buyers, Chistiye Prudy's
developers should offer more attractive prices. Average prices per square meter
in the Chistiye Prudy neighborhood are currently between $3,800 and $5,500, she
added.
Despite its popularity, this part of Moscow is characterized by limited modern
elite housing, since it lacks sites suitable for development: It is dominated by
pre-revolutionary and mid-20th century buildings, none of which could be
potentially slated for demolition, said Yekaterina Thain, director of elite
residential real estate at Knight Frank.
For this reason, the project has very good potential, even though she considers
its two mansions "too large" to be sold as private residences. "They are more
likely to become corporate guesthouses, assuming that the developer's pricing is
right," she added.