Industrial zones - a rare chance for a large investment project in Moscow

Within the old borders of Moscow, every year there are less and less free sites for new development projects. However, investors, who at one time did not manage to get a tidbit of land, still have a chance to purchase a building plot, and this chance is the Industrial Quarters program, within which the capital's authorities plan to provide complex construction on 2000 hectares of industrial zones for 10-12 years. As Moscow Deputy Mayor Vladimir Efimov emphasizes, in fact, we are talking about the last undeveloped territories within the Moscow Ring Road. In an interview with RIA Novosti, the head of the city's economic policy and property and land relations complex told how the industrial zones that will be transferred to developers were determined, how much housing and non-residential real estate could appear on them, and what the Industrial Quarters program can give to the capital itself.

- Vladimir Vladimirovich, I want to start a conversation about the reorganization of industrial zones with a question that is often asked by ordinary people who have nothing to do with construction. How do the Moscow authorities decide that this industrial zone should remain, but this one should be reorganized? And why, in general, the question arose about the need to redevelop part of the operating spaces?

- The Industrial Quarters program implies the reorganization of depressed areas of former industrial zones, where there are no operating industries and now they are used ineffectively - that is, at best, there are warehouses or parking lots. We never include existing production facilities in projects for the integrated development of territories, industry is the most important segment of the Moscow economy, and we have a whole set of support tools for manufacturing companies that help, among other things, to modernize factories and improve their territories.

Potential development includes sites that, according to the documents, belong to industrial zones, but in fact there is no production activity there - for example, in the former industrial zones "Kuntsevo" and "Oktyabrskoye Pole" there were abandoned factories of reinforced concrete products, and in the former industrial zone " Korovino" territory is simply littered and used as unorganized warehouses.

- What are the pallid statistics? How many industrial zones in Moscow will be redeveloped?

- For four years, the government of the capital has surveyed all territories, the type of permitted use of which relates to industry - these are 15000 hectares of industrial and production zones. It turned out that 8000 hectares have already been built up with housing or objects that are not related to production. On another 5000, there are existing production facilities. And another 2000 hectares have the potential for development - that is, now there are no factories, no housing, no social or business infrastructure in these territories. These are huge squares that have fallen out of the life of the city, where there are no normal jobs or urban environment. And in order to involve these territories in the economic turnover, we have formed 130 projects for the integrated development of territories, which will be built up within the framework of the Industrial Quarters project.

- And what about the 5000 hectares occupied by operating enterprises: are they all included in the urban fabric, from your point of view? Is it possible to make the operating factories a part of the city, and not hide behind concrete fences with barbed wire, which are scary to walk past in the late evening?

- There are various enterprises operating in Moscow, there are also restricted ones, which simply need to have a fence around their territory simply because of security requirements. But you are right, solid concrete fences do not decorate the city, and the owners must keep their facilities in order, comply with the requirements that we set for the urban environment, so we work systematically with enterprises, encourage them to put their facades and the appearance of fences in order. For example, we encourage them through the Industry Support Fund or, if the "carrot" does not work, we resort to punishment mechanisms through the Association of Administrative and Technical Inspections.

In addition, the capital also assumes certain obligations within the framework of the My District program: we are gradually trying to put in order the territories adjacent to the existing industrial zones, including improving the approaches to enterprises and the corresponding pedestrian zones.

- The description of the Industrial Quarters project says that the urban planning potential of the program is about 35 million square meters. Where did this figure come from?

- The latest calculation of the technical and economic indicators of projects in total gave a figure of 33 million square meters of urban development potential. We tentatively plan that about 14 million square meters will fall on offices and other public and business buildings, 10 million - for new industrial production, and 9 million - for housing. Within the territories for integrated development, of course, the creation of a modern urban environment with public spaces, comprehensive improvement and construction of the entire social infrastructure will be immediately "protected". When determining the potential of territories, a whole set of factors is taken into account. First, within the framework of the Industrial Quarters, we are trying to compensate for the deficits in the districts - we ask the prefecture what infrastructure is lacking and put its creation into the project. Somewhere these are schools and kindergartens, somewhere public areas, sports facilities and so on. Further, the Moskomarkhitektura determines the possible density, height of the building and its functional content. Each project provides for the creation of production areas; it is fundamentally important for us to at least partially restore the industrial purpose of these territories. Although we understand that modern industry no longer requires such huge areas and a 21st century technopark can look like a stylish office building.

- Industrial zones in Moscow, as a rule, are located in places with poor transport accessibility. Who will have to finance the development of transport infrastructure and how well thought out is this aspect now?

- Quite the opposite - projects for the integrated development of territories are being implemented within the boundaries of "old" Moscow, and there are practically no problems with transport accessibility. For example, the Korovino industrial zone - next to it is the Moscow Ring Road, Dmitrovskoe and Korovinskoe highways. There may be no public transport stops nearby - due to the lack of demand for such routes, since the territories are depressed and unused, there is no passenger traffic. After the redevelopment, the situation will change, and the pattern of public transport will also change. In general, the city will, of course, be responsible for the creation of the main road network and new routes of public transport. But internal development roads and driveways are built at the expense of investors. For this, a comprehensive development of the territory is launched, in this case investments are an obligation of the investor in the implementation of the project.

As part of projects for the integrated development of territories, we in Moscow clearly prescribe in what time frame and what should be done by the city. After that, the capital's obligations are laid down in a three-year Targeted Investment Program. And our transport complex takes into account plans for the development of industrial areas when planning urban transport routes.

- In what kind of production are investors ready to invest?

- We have a very diversified structure of industrial enterprises, a significant part is occupied by the food industry. Moscow, being one of the world's largest markets for food products, provides itself entirely for a number of products, and even exports part of the food industry's positions. Also in the focus of attention of investors are electronics, mechanical engineering, high-tech industries. At the same enterprises of the military-industrial complex, a large number of scientific centres operate precisely on the territory of Moscow.

- How many developers in Moscow are already participating in the Industrial Quarters project and how many are showing interest and saying that they are ready, just waiting for holding tenders?

- We have already signed four contracts with four different investors and we see that the absolute majority of the largest developers in the capital are considering the possibility of participating in the project.

At the last meeting of the Moscow Investors' Club in July, which was held with the participation of the mayor of the city Sergei Sobyanin, we once again presented the Industrial Quarters and we see great interest in it. The project is absolutely open from the point of view of access to information: all territories, draft decisions on the integrated development of which have been prepared, are known, the schedule and logic of decision-making are known. Let me emphasize: "Industrial Quarters" is a unique opportunity for an investor to get a large site within the old borders of Moscow for the integrated development of territories, in fact, these are the last undeveloped territories within the Moscow Ring Road. This project will largely determine the appearance of Moscow for the next 10–20 years - there will no longer be such a large-scale creation of new quarters with mixed development, the creation of new industries, housing and all related infrastructure in the near future.

- It's no secret that a large number of different individuals and legal entities are the rightholders of land plots and buildings in the territories included in the "Industrial Quarters". How is the work with them going, and is everyone ready to participate in the integrated development of the territories?

- Yes, we are talking about hundreds of copyright holders. At the moment, three out of four concluded contracts have been initiated by the copyright holder. We also see systematic work on the part of large investors to consolidate real estate objects located in industrial zones planned for the integrated development of territories, so I do not exclude that other owners of industrial territories will soon come to us.

In general, we proceed from the following: the copyright holder has the right to declare at any time for an independent implementation of the integrated development project, in this we in no way infringe upon them. Moreover, by providing technical and economic indicators to sites where now there are only old buildings of stopped factories, we are essentially capitalizing the property of rightholders. However, even if in this case the owners do not want to develop their territory, then the city either implements the project on its own, or seeks an interested investor through tenders, in any case, the investor pays the market price to the rightholders for their plots, real estate and property.

At the same time, it is important to understand that when determining the market value, the town-planning potential of the territory is not taken into account: if there is a collapsed shed, then they will pay as much as the land itself and this collapsed shed.

- The city is probably not indifferent to how the territories of integrated development will look like in the end. Are there any plans to hold international architectural competitions for projects for the development of industrial zones?

- Of course. By the way, the question of the appearance of new investment projects was discussed in detail at the last meeting of the Moscow Investors' Club. Let me remind you that it is impossible to obtain a building permit in the capital if there is no agreed architectural urban planning solution. Now the city is introducing a procedure for two-stage coordination of architectural and urban planning solutions - preliminary and final.

The fact is that we have repeatedly encountered the situation that "at the entrance" to the project, they bring us beautiful pictures, and "at the exit", after the economy has been calculated, the appearance of buildings is simplified by an order of magnitude. Therefore, we agreed that we will discuss architectural solutions in two stages. We understand that the marginality and profitability of construction projects in Moscow is high, and it allows us to implement beautiful and iconic projects that are not shameful to show.

- How many abandoned objects in Moscow are there not in industrial zones, but in areas adjacent to them?

- There are about 230 long-term construction projects in Moscow, and these are not urban objects - we have dealt with ours a long time ago. These are either investment objects or federal ones. On the latter, we are trying to actively work with the Federal Property Management Agency and "Dom.RF". With the arrival of Marat Khusnullin (Deputy Prime Minister of Russia) To the Russian government, we have significantly intensified work to involve federal property in the economic turnover. Within the framework of the Industrial Quarters project, six territories of long-term construction in four districts of the capital - Central, West, North and North-East, will be reorganized. The volume of investments in the implementation of projects will amount to more than 21 million rubles.

- More than a hundred areas of integrated development, 2000 hectares. How many years, according to your calculations, will it take to implement the Industrial Quarters project?

- This is a 10-15 year project. We expect that in the next 2-3 years we will launch all the planned projects, and then design and construction will begin. In terms of implementation terms, "Industrial Quarters" are comparable to the program for the renovation of the housing stock in the capital, and we are guided by the fact that these two projects will be completed plus or minus at the same time. As for the plots, the renovation and redevelopment of industrial zones will be linked to each other, including due to the fact that the industrial lands will become an additional source of sites for the program of housing renovation in the city and will accelerate it at the stage of the second wave.

Source: realty.ria.ru