The Holosiyevo mixed-use development will integrate residential, office, retail, and a school and kindergarten in a single community. The project will be completed later this year.
As Kyivans’ salaries grow, the demand for quality apartments is increasing and development companies are responding by building mixed-use real estate complexes that combine residential and commercial space in compact communities.
Among the biggest mixed-use development projects under construction is Holosiyevo, a 219,000 square-meter project at 13 Holosiyevska Street being developed by Miskzhytlobud, a private Ukrainian construction company.
“This segment of real estate is only starting to develop in Ukraine,” said Volodymyr Danylenko, the lead marketing specialist at the Ukrainian Trade Guild real estate consulting firm. “Quality mixed-use complexes don’t fully exist in Kyiv yet, but enough projects of this type are planned, which proves their increasing popularity and availability to developers.”
Mixed-use real estate allows various property types, usually residential, office, hotel, retail and entertainment, to be integrated into a single community development.
This type of real estate development is the most prospective for the Kyiv market because customers are demanding homes that are close to work, as well as retail stores and services that are convenient for their day-to-day lives, Danylenko said.
Among the biggest of Miskzhytlobud’s projects, Holosiyevo will include 20 to 25story residential buildings consisting of 1,565 apartments, a school and kindergarten, a business center, retail stores and parking. The company plans to finish construction by the end of 2008.
Most mixeduse developments follow that model, experts said.
“All mixeduse real estate complexes in Kyiv are similar to each other, including offices, banks and pharmacies on the first floor, and residential buildings starting from the second or third floor,” said Yulia Levtchuk, executive manager of the Arcom development company.
While Holosiyevo will be close to a new metro station, Miskzhytlobud is also building a mixeduse complex near the Lybidska metro station.
It will encompass 745,000 square meters and the total cost of the construction is about $1 billion. Construction is planned for 2009.
Other mixeduse projects include a 74,000 squaremeter complex at 3 Sribnokilska Street and the Kniazhiy Zaton complex, consisting of 235,000 square meters. Both are within walking distance of the Osokorky metro station in the Darnytsia district.
Austrian real developer De Vision is building both projects.
As the demand for residential real estate in mixedused complexes increases, the prices for apartments in such complexes will also grow, said Denys Kostrazhevskiy, the president of Miskzhytlobud.
“Mixeduse real estate is especially in demand in bedroom communities which are far from the city center, where trade and entertainment infrastructure is better developed,” said Kateryna Starunska, De Vision’s public relations manager.
A big challenge for developers is they have difficulty controling whether tenants uphold their lease agreements on the type of retail they plan to open, said Halyna Bondarenko, the head of Miskzhytlobud’s press service.
“Some complexes have logistics warehouses on the first floors (of residential buildings), and this means that living in such complexes may not be convenient,” Starunska said.
For example, a tenant might space as a pharmacy, and then later open it as an art center, she said.
However, many mixeduse projects are specially designed to offer flexilibty in use. Some allow rezoning space from hotel to office use for example, or vice versa, if a particular business project isn't successful, Levtchuk said.
Other factors drawing interest in developing mixeduse projects include the possibility of combining various functions that allow using the land plots efficiently by saving resources, producing a high yield and decreasing financial risks, she said.
Residential apartments within the complexes make the return on investment period shorter, she said.
Yet developers still have many problems to tackle and are finding it difficult to design efficient parking zones and plan how different zones should be situated, including how to connect to utility and communication lines, Levtchuk said.
Source: http://www.kyivpost.com/
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