Vadim Stolar's bUd Development will develop the historic part of Kyiv / collage KV
It appears that RT Development LLC will be able to construct a 24-story residential complex, "Symbol," at 16 Baggovutovska Street (lits. A and B), under the guise of reconstruction, without the approval of cultural heritage authorities. Due to the lack of clear boundaries for various protected zones in Kyiv and the obvious complicity of Kyiv City State Administration officials in the courts (they failed to pay the court fee and missed the appeal deadline), this company was able to prove that the land in question is not part of the Central Historical Area. Interestingly, the developer of this project, bUd Development, is associated with Vadym Stolar (left in the collage), a member of parliament from the Opposition Platform – For Life (OPFL), a businessman with extensive connections and influence within the Kyiv authorities, who was dubbed "Kyiv's overseer" just three years ago.
As it became known KVRecently, the Department of Urban Development and Architecture of the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA) lost a court case that determined the fate of the construction of a new residential complex in the Shevchenkivskyi district (Tatarka area).
This concerns court case No. 640/34009/21, in which the said entity is the defendant. This summer, the Kyiv City State Administration's (KCSA) Urban Development Department, for obvious reasons, was unsuccessful in its appeal to the Kyiv District Administrative Court (KDCAC), and on October 27, 2022, the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeals denied this entity's request to open an appeal. The grounds for the refusal were trivial and avoidable—failure to pay the court fee and missing the appeal deadline.
As a result, RT Development LLC secured the invalidation and repeal of several clauses of the municipal planning document for the reconstruction of a non-residential building at 16 Baggovutovskoy Street (lit. A, B) into a residential complex, issued by the Kyiv City State Administration's Department of Urban Development and Architecture. Now, this company is no longer required to obtain approval from cultural heritage authorities when planning and implementing construction—it can effectively build however and however it pleases.
Approximate development area of "bUd Development"
It is now known that RT Development LLC intends to build a comfort-class residential complex called “ on Baggovutovskaya Street, 16 (lit. A, B)symbol"The developer of this project is "bUd Development".
Conflict-prone development by bUd Development
On April 21, 2015, the Kyiv City Council adopted Resolution No. 432/1297 on the lease of a 0,6911 hectare land plot (cadastral number 8000000000:91:112:0004) at 16 Baghovutovska Street (lit. A, B) to RT Development LLC for 25 years "for the maintenance and operation of administrative buildings." The basis for the land allocation was the fact that, since 2014, this company has owned two buildings located on this plot, with a total area of 1,4 square meters. The land lease agreement between the Kyiv City Council and RT Development LLC was concluded on October 12, 2015.
Subsequently, by decision No. 437/8010 of December 12, 2019, the capital's city council approved amendments to this lease agreement, changing the intended purpose of the site, allowing it to be used "for the maintenance and operation of a multifunctional complex."
On May 10, 2018, the Kyiv City State Administration's Department of Urban Development and Architecture issued a design permit to RT Development LLC for the reconstruction of a non-residential building at 16 Baggovutovskoy Street (lit. A, B) "for a residential complex with built-in and attached public spaces and parking."
According to this document, RT Development LLC was permitted to design a residential complex with a maximum height of 73,5 meters (approximately 24-25 floors – KV). However, the document stipulated that if the project was to be designed for a building taller than 50 meters, the construction contractor must obtain approval from Ukraerorukh, the State Service, and the Kyiv International Airport (Zhuliany) Municipal Enterprise.
Importantly, Grodnostroy also stated that the site at 16 Baggovutovskaya Street (lits. A and B) is located within the Kyiv Central Historic Area, in a Category III development control zone. Therefore, RT Development LLC was obligated to obtain additional approvals from a number of relevant government agencies, including cultural heritage protection authorities, when planning the work.
The Municipal Department of Urban Development also noted that in close proximity to the design site at 16 Baggovutovska Street, there is a building included in the List of Newly Discovered Cultural Heritage Sites of Kyiv (the list was approved by the Kyiv City State Administration back in 2011 – KV). This is a 19th-century house, the so-called "Bagovut Estate." Therefore, the Kyiv City State Administration's Department of Urban Development and Architecture assigned RT Development LLC the responsibility of "ensuring the preservation of the protected monument, its parts and elements" – both during the construction work and during the subsequent operation of the residential complex.
Based on these documents, on November 6, 2020, the State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate (GAI) issued permit No. ІУ013201105132 to RT Development LLC for the reconstruction of a non-residential building at 16 Baggovutovskaya Street (lits. A, B) into a residential complex with integrated and attached public spaces and parking. Alfabud Komplekt LLC was designated as the general contractor for this work.
The full version of this document is not publicly available. However, according to data from websites covering Moscow real estate, the State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate (GASI) has authorized RT Development LLC to renovate its building into a 24-story building (approximately 70 meters high) with 374 apartments and a parking garage for 200 cars.
It's noteworthy that both the municipal construction department and the State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate (GASI) issued permits for the reconstruction, even though the site's intended use, as a reminder, does not allow for such work. Whether this constitutes a violation in this case likely needs to be determined by the relevant government agencies.
After receiving the reconstruction permit, RT Development LLC transferred the construction contracting authority to another company, Fartproekt LLC. There is no publicly available information regarding when or under what conditions this occurred, but according to court documents, this delegation took place no later than the first half of 2021.
In late spring last year, work began on the site at 16 Baggovutovska Street (lit. A, B). However, on June 10, 2021, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine issued orders to RT Development LLC, Fartproekt LLC, and Alfabud Komplekt LLC to immediately cease excavation and any other construction work there. This was due to the fact that the companies had not received approval for construction within the Kyiv Central Historic Area. According to the orders, these companies were required to "take measures to bring their activities into compliance with legal requirements in the field of cultural heritage protection and provide explanations regarding the substance of the reported violations."
In July 2021, RT Development LLC, Fartproekt LLC, and Alfabud Komplekt LLC filed a lawsuit with the OAC seeking to have the orders issued by the Ministry of Culture declared unlawful and to have them overturned.
In support of their claims, the plaintiffs stated that RT Development LLC attempted to obtain approval for these works from the Ministry of Culture in 2020, filing a petition for construction project approval and an excavation permit, but was denied. The Ministry of Culture's official reason for the refusal was that Kyiv's historical and architectural reference plan (HARP) had not been approved at the time in accordance with the established procedure. However, the plaintiffs used the same argument in court: if the HARP had not been approved, they should not have sought permission from the Ministry of Culture to carry out the work in the first place.
On December 16, 2021, the OASK fully upheld the plaintiffs' claims. The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy filed an appeal against this first-instance court decision to the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeals. However, on September 5, 2022, the appellate court returned the Ministry of Culture's appeal due to several deficiencies.
In November 2021, RT Development LLC filed a claim with the OASK and the Department of Urban Development and Architecture of the Kyiv City State Administration.
The company explained its demands simply: they claimed that officials had incorrectly indicated in the MOUs they issued that the design site was located within Kyiv's Central Historic Area and within a Category III development control zone, and therefore the LLC in question should not have received any "extra paperwork." Furthermore, the plaintiff pointed out that there is currently no scientific design documentation approved by the relevant cultural heritage protection authority defining the boundaries and use regimes of Kyiv's development control zones.
Screenshot of the court decision on this case from July 14, 2022 "bUd Development"
These and other arguments from RT Development LLC were accepted by OASK Judge Valery Kuzmenko. Among other things, the judge also pointed out that the Ministry of Culture's Order No. 599 of August 2, 2021, which approved the boundaries of the capital's Central Historical Area, was not registered as a legal act and was not published in the relevant official publication, and that the municipal legal acts were issued prior to the adoption of this order (the point being that the law does not have retroactive effect – KV).
Therefore, on July 14, 2022, this company's claim was fully satisfied. Specifically, the court struck the paragraph from the Municipal Property Regulations regarding the designation of the site at 16 Baggovutovskaya Street (lit. A, B) as part of the Central Historical Area and the requirement that the design documentation be approved by cultural heritage protection authorities.
Trend
As KV has reported repeatedly, legal disputes over appeals against individual provisions of the Municipal Housing Code are commonplace in the capital and, apparently, a long-standing tradition. Experts agree that this is a common practice among Kyiv City State Administration officials and developers to engage in "fixed" deals.
When a land plot has significant construction restrictions (being in a historical zone, located close to nature conservation sites, etc.), Kyiv City State Administration officials are often wary of fulfilling every whim of clients regarding the characteristics of construction projects. In such cases, municipal development organizations (MDUs) are made to appear squeaky clean from a legal perspective, and developers are sent to court, where officials are less likely to resist satisfying claims. In other words, the court's decision serves as a safeguard against criminal proceedings. The Kyiv City State Administration understands that developers have little difficulty winning such legal disputes, since the boundaries of various protected zones and areas, including due to the Kyiv General Plan (the current General Plan for 36 Khreshchatyk Street was declared obsolete on dubious grounds, and the new Kyiv City Council did not approve it, meaning the capital will live without a General Plan until at least the end of 2024 – KV), are not clearly defined.
Among the most recent examples, Yug-Proekt LLC (a company affiliated with KSM-Group) recently won the right to design a 100-meter multifunctional complex with residential space, effectively located in the Goloseevsky Forest, thanks to its appeal of certain demands by the Municipal Development Authority. This is the same KSM-Group that developed Metrologichnaya Street near Feofaniya.
bUd Development. Characters: Stolar and Kuznechnaya
According to the Youcontrol analytical system, the capital's LLC "RT Development" (the tenant of the land plot at 16 Baggovutovskoy Street (lit. A, B), which received a municipal land plot from the Kyiv City State Administration and a permit from the State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate) was founded in December 2010. The director of the company is listed as Vitaliy Andriyuk, the founder and ultimate beneficiary is Kyiv resident Nikolay Krivonosov, who also owns the real estate rental company LLC "Dmitrovitskaya Valley».
Kiev Fartproekt LLC (the construction customer) was registered in April 2019. The director, founder, and ultimate beneficiary of the company is listed as Maksym Davydenko, a resident of Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, who is also the official owner of several other companies, in particular— LLC "DSK-7" and LLC Lines LimitedThe co-founder of these latter companies is Chernivtsi resident Oksana Perepelitsa, who is clearly affiliated with the Kovalska Construction Group (BG), under whose banner nearly two dozen residential complexes have been or are currently being built in Kyiv. Evidence of this is that Oksana Perepelitsa is listed as the head of JSC ZNIIKIF Gorizont and JSC ZNIKIF Stima Capital, co-owned by Sergei Pilipenko, the general director of Kovalska, a deputy of the Kyiv City Council of the previous VIII convocation (elected from Solidarity), and also the son of the president of BG, Oleksandr Pilipenko.
Alfabud Komplekt LLC (the general contractor) was registered in Kyiv in April 2016. Yuriy Parkhomchuk is listed as the company's director, while its founder and official owner is Kyiv resident Yevhen Khmara.
This company is a regular participant in bud Development's projects as a construction contractor. Specifically, Alfabud Development LLC has assisted and continues to assist in the construction of residential complexes such as Oasis, Arsenal House, Slavutich 2.0, and others. According to the Lun portal, bUd Development's portfolio includes 13 residential complexes.
For the past several years, the media have linked this developer to Vadym Stolar, a member of parliament of Ukraine in the sixth and ninth convocations (elected from the Party of Regions and the Opposition Platform – Pre Zhiv), a member of the Kyiv City Council of the seventh convocation (self-nominated), and a Kyiv entrepreneur with broad and profound influence in the mayor's office and beyond. In June 2022, it was reported that Stolar had withdrawn from the bUd Development project, as well as from another well-known Kyiv construction company with which he was associated, ENSO. However, according to KV's data and observations, rumors of Stolar's exit from the construction business are premature.
In addition to the developers mentioned above, according to Ekonomicheskaya Pravda, Vadim Stolar is also or was associated with the Moscow developers BudCapital and IB Alliance. However, according to observations
Vadym Stolar is one of the most influential businessmen in Kyiv. According to media reports, from 2014 to 2019, during the fifth President Petro Poroshenko's tenure, he was Kyiv's top "overseer," allowing him to appoint his people to the city's government, manage budget allocations, and manage city land, among other things.
In the spring of 2019, after Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s victory in the presidential elections, Vadim Stolar began to rapidly lose ground in Kyiv, and soon the dubious title of “Kyiv’s overseer” passed to Denis Komarnitskyy, co-chairman of the “Leonid Chernovetsky Bloc" in the Kyiv City Council of the VI convocation and an entrepreneur.
In the snap parliamentary elections in August 2019, Vadym Stolar won a second seat as a member of parliament—the 11th candidate of the Opposition Platform—For Life party. He became the head of the Kyiv party organization and joined the political council of the now-banned pro-Russian party. Sources in political circles claimed that Stolar achieved this intra-party success thanks to agreements with Viktor Medvedchuk. Specifically, as KV sources reported, Stolar shared part of his construction business in exchange for Medvedchuk's quota on the electoral lists. However, it now appears that Medvedchuk's former stake has been transferred to someone in power or affiliated with them.
Stolar is one of the MPs who missed all plenary sessions of the Verkhovna Rada after the Russian Federation's full-scale military invasion of Ukraine began. This is because, a week and a half to two weeks before February 24, Vadym Stolar left for Germany to celebrate his grandmother's 80th birthday. Sources involved in the "ex-watcher over Kyiv" said Stolar fled the impending Muscovite invasion to sit out the war abroad, and then negotiate with the victors and return.
According to KV, Vadim Stolar has moved his office to Dubai. He himself apparently doesn't reside permanently in the same place. His family apparently lives in Stolar's villa in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat (near Nice, France)—next door to former Opposition Platform—For Life co-chairman and another parliamentary shirker, Sergei Levochkin.
In May, a scandal erupted: it was revealed that the head physician of the Oleksandrivska Hospital, Lyudmila Antonenko, who is also Stolar's cousin, was prohibiting the hospital from accepting donations from anyone other than the Vadym Stolar Foundation. Months passed, and the situation at the Oleksandrivska Hospital remained unchanged. In September, it was revealed that the Oleksandrivska Hospital's management was prohibiting the hospital from accepting donations from volunteers other than the Vadym Stolar Foundation. And at the end of July, Stolar transferred his media business (the TV channels "Typical Kyiv," Odesa.live, and Live) to the founder and director of his own foundation, the Future for Ukraine Charitable Foundation, Anna Kovaleva, who is also the co-founder of the creative agencies We Know How and Badoev ID.
The position of Director of the Department of Urban Development and Architecture of the Kyiv City State Administration has been held by Alexander Svistunov (pictured on the right in the collage). The work of the aforementioned department has been overseen by the Deputy Chairman of the Kyiv City State Administration since April 2, 2021. Petr Olenich.
The Kyiv City State Administration's Department for Cultural Heritage Protection has been headed by Oleksandr Nikoryak since September 7, 2018. Since the beginning of 2021, the Deputy Chairman of the Kyiv City State Administration has been overseeing the department's activities. Vladimir Prokopov.
Since June 4, 2020, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy has been headed by Oleksandr Tkachenko, the former CEO of the 1+1 television channel and a former member of parliament of the current 9th convocation of the Verkhovna Rada (elected on the Servant of the People party list, he headed the Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy in parliament).
translation Skelet.Org
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