A new business area, «Commercial Property» has evolved within LSR Group with a subsidiary company founded for the purpose — A Plus Estate. The news was communicated today, on July 25 at a LSR press conference devoted to the opening of Apollo, a new Class A business centre at Prospekt Dobrolyubova in St. Petersburg.
The conference was attended by:
- Igor Levit, CEO, LSR Group
- Georgy Bogachev, Managing Director, LSR Group
- Kyle Patching, Director of Office and Industrial Real Estate Department, Colliers International St. Petersburg
- Olga Potifirova, General Director, St. Petersburg state establishment Agency for Strategic Investments.
The purpose of the new company, A Plus Estate is to set up and manage office complexes that could be still in demand and modern-looking after 15 to 20 years, as well as winning a leading position in management of high-end office real estate in St. Petersburg and strengthening its presence in the Moscow region where A Plus Estate is planning to open its first A class business centre before 2011.
According to Igor Levit, CEO of LSR Group, it is feasible to achieve such goals because today both St. Petersburg and Moscow are facing a great shortage of high-level office property while the existing land bank of LSR Group just in the foreseeable future only will enable the company to implement quite a number of topmost level commercial real estate projects with a total area of 500,000 m.2 In addition, LSR Group intends to become the first developer in the Northern Capital to erect not only individual office buildings but also whole business blocks that will be designed and built using cutting-edge technologies and advanced planning solutions anticipating future customers needs, and can be referred to as Class A+ in every respect.
«The investment attractiveness of St. Petersburg keeps growing so large companies including international corporations that establish their presence here need presentable and smart office space of classes A and A+, said Igor Levit. — Currently there is a shortage of such type of commercial property in this city. The situation in Moscow is very much alike: the demand for high-quality business centres is notably higher than the supply.»
The new company feels confident that the achievement of its goals will by facilitated by the unequivocal name, «A Plus Estate» as well as by the slogan chosen — «A Plus Estate — Business Management Centres» that serves to emphasize the smart functionalities and trendiness of the new office buildings.
By now A Plus Estate is already managing three business centres in St. Petersburg - at Marata Street, Galernaya Street, and the first Class A Apollo Business Centre at Prospekt Dobrolyubova that brought LSR Group one of the most prestigious awards in the Russian construction industry — Federal Commercial Real Estate Award in nomination «Best A Class Business Centre in St. Petersburg.» According to one the jury members of the contest, Boris Yushenkov, General Director of Colliers International St. Petersburg the project owes its success to the advantageous location and an ingenious architectural solution. «LSR Group is a very experienced developer implementing projects at the level of high European standards including luxury property, and the Apollo Business Centre is no exception,» commented Boris Yushenkov.
«When the world known architect, Kisho Kurokava who is currently designing the stadium on Krestovsky Island was going to open his office in St. Petersburg, he went to the Apollo Business Centre, said Olga Potifirova, General Director of Agency for Strategic Investments. — He was amazed by the view from the 8th floor and was about to set up an office right here and started making floor plans. Unfortunately, due to the timeframe of his commitments to the city he could not wait for this business centre to open.»
In the past, such a business centre would have been sold by LSR Group immediately after commissioning but now in line with the strategy of the new business area the commercial property was transferred to A Plus Estate for management.
In addition, the company is already carrying out a number of new projects in St. Petersburg and Moscow. In the Northern Capital it is commercial real estate in the Paradny (Gala) and Smolny quarters and a whole complex of commercial property, Electric City (on the site of Elektrik factory at Prospekt Medikov) of 340,000 m2 total area that will comprise a business centre, parking lot and all necessary infrastructure for tenants' convenience: restaurants, cafes, shops, tertiary industries, fitness centre, kindergarten, conference centre etc.
In the very centre of Moscow, on Sadovnichesky Island LSR Group is implementing a multi-functional complex. The design was prepared by the Architects' Bureau of Alexei Vorontsov and provides for the construction of a six-storied building with a three-level underground parking facility. The proposed area of the business centre including its underground floors will exceed 20,000 m2, the offices and shopping areas are to occupy approx. 16,000 m.2
The responsibilities of A Plus Estate include not only management of commercial property but also development of technical design assignments for future office complexes to be taken up by LSR Group developer companies — Renaissance of St. Petersburg (in St. Petersburg) and Mosstroirekonstruktsia (in Moscow).
The designs of new business complexes are based on the world's best real estate practices: before moving to a new business area the company management visited the countries leading in this market segment to familiarize themselves with some of the ultramodern projects implemented abroad. «It makes no sense to invent a bicycle if one can learn from those who are more advanced in such projects,» said Georgy Bogachev, Managing Director of LSR Group.
According to the experts, the new business area of LSR Group looks quite promising. Kyle Patching, Director of Office and Industrial Real Estate Department, Colliers International St. Petersburg said that there is a steady high demand for top level property both in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and such projects are going to be promoted to the markets of the two capitals.
For reference:
OAO LSR Group is a vertically integrated diversified holding company, a leader of the Russian construction industry. Its core business areas are building materials manufacturing, construction and real estate development. The Group includes enterprises for aggregate extraction and processing, building materials manufacturing and transportation, and housing construction — from mass market large-panel housing to elite residential property built after designs made by leading domestic and foreign architects.
LSR Group has enterprises and offices in St. Petersburg, Moscow, a number of cities in Leningrad Oblast, in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine. LSR employs over 14,000 people.
According to the audited consolidated IFRS results of OAO LSR Group, its earnings in 2006 amounted to 21.1 billion rubles, a 61% increase over 2005, pre-tax income in 2006 reached 1.76 billion rubles, and net profit stood at 1.1 billion rubles.
For more details please contact:
Corporate Communications and PR Directorate, LSR Group
Tel.: (812) 314-1044 or e-mail: press@lsrgroup.ru
A Plus Estate : tel.: (812) 333-3445 or e-mail: matrosova@lsrgroup.ru
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