Kovalska Industrial and Construction Group (Kovalska) plans to start construction of the NUVO business center at 47 Zhylianska Street in Kyiv in 2026, the group’s CEO Serhiy Pylypenko said in an interview with LIGA.net.
“We plan to launch the project on the market approximately next year. The concept has been improved, but remains the same: mixed-use office space with some apartments, a hotel. We plan to start construction work in 2026,” said Pylypenko.
He noted that the company has finalized the project and increased its share from 50% to 100%, becoming the sole customer of the construction. Previously, KDD Ukraine was involved in the project.
As reported, in February 2023, Kovalska Group received permission to build the NUVO business park in the center of Kyiv. Earlier, in 2020, the group received permission from the Antimonopoly Committee to buy a 2-hectare land plot at 47 Zhylianska Street in the capital to build a business park.
MVRDV designed two Class A office buildings with a total area of 42 thousand square meters and a height of 18 and 11 floors. Orange Architects designed a 36 thousand square meter building designed to accommodate flexible offices, commercial and cultural spaces on the lower floors, and a hotel and residential space on the upper floors. The design of the complex also takes into account the light rail line on Zhylianska Street.
Kovalska ICG has been operating in the Ukrainian construction market since 1956. It unites more than 20 enterprises in the field of raw materials extraction, production and construction. Its products are represented by the brands Concrete by Kovalska, Avenue, and Siltek. Kovalska’s enterprises operate in Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Lviv, and Chernihiv regions. The aerated concrete plant in Kherson region has not been operating since the beginning of the occupation.
The group also includes Kovalska Real Estate, which is engaged in the construction of residential properties in Kyiv. Its portfolio includes more than 20 completed residential projects.
The engineering and construction company Rauta is starting to implement a business center project in Podil, Kyiv, which will be the first project in which Rauta will perform customer service functions, the company’s press service told Interfax-Ukraine.
“The client service is a new service in Rauta’s offer, but the company already has several projects in its portfolio in which it performs work that allows it to build turnkey buildings,” said Andriy Ozeychuk, the company’s owner.
The functions of the construction customer service include support at the pre-project stage, development of design and estimate documentation, its examination, selection of a general contractor, obtaining a building permit, preparatory work at the construction site, construction of the facility itself, construction and connection of external engineering networks, and commissioning.
Rauta clarified that the business center with an area of about 3 thousand square meters is being built for an international IT company in the historical center of Kyiv, at 10b Kontraktova Square.
Rauta is a leading provider of reliable construction solutions in Ukraine and the European Union.
According to the company’s data, Rauta Group LLC was registered in Ukraine in 2014, with an authorized capital of UAH 388 thousand and revenue of UAH 102 million 396 thousand in 2022.
The construction project management outsourcing is a new service in Rauta offer, but the company already has several projects in its portfolio where it performs turnkey construction works.
The new 7-storey business center has an area of about 3.000 sq.m and modern infrastructure with a comfortable workspace for IT entrepreneurs.
Performance of Rauta construction project management outsourcing includes the following stages:
More information about the construction project management outsourcing
Dragon Capital investment company has completed the acquisition of a new A class Viking business center in Lviv, the press service reported. “This is our second business center in Lviv and the 14th in the Dragon Capital portfolio of office real estate in Ukraine,” CEO of Dragon Capital Tomas Fiala said.
The business center, located at the intersection of Zelena and Pimonenko Streets in Sykhiv district of Lviv, was commissioned in August 2021. The object consists of two sections (9 and 12 floors) with a total area of 18,700 square meters, and includes a parking lot for 102 cars.
The business center was built according to the “green” BREEAM certification standards.
Dragon Capital is one of the largest investment groups in Ukraine in the field of investment and financial services, providing a full range of investment banking and brokerage services, direct investments, asset management for institutional, corporate and private clients. The company was founded in Kyiv in 2000. One of the key activities of Dragon Capital is investment in the real estate market.
The commercial real estate portfolio is managed by Dragon Capital Property Management. As of September 2021, it manages 31 commercial real estate objects, including 14 office objects, six retail real estate objects and 11 logistics complexes, with a total area of 778,000 sq m.
In Kyiv, at various stages of construction readiness, 32 business centers with a total GLA of almost 670,00 square meters (excluding large-scale facilities) are announced for opening in 2021-2022, Managing Partner of UTG Offices Volodymyr Heliuta has told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, according to the results of the first half of 2021, the total rental area of professional facilities in Kyiv is slightly more than 2 million square meters. In the structure of supply of space, class A accounts for 25%, B and C – 75%.
“About 52% of office space was commissioned before 2010 and today it is morally and technically outdated. Therefore, despite the permanent lockdowns, we see the interest of investors and developers in the office real estate market – frozen and postponed projects have been actively revived since the middle of 2020. Outdated shopping centers, hotel complexes, enterprises and factories are being reconstructed into office real estate,” Heliuta said.
For June 2021, the rental price per square meter a month in class A it was $20-25 excluding VAT, OPEX, utility bills and BOMA coefficients, in classes B and B + – $16-20.
The expert said that due to the release of a new proposal, vacancy is growing. Thus, in class A business centers it is 10%, in class B, B + business centers it is 10-15% with a tendency to increase.
Since the end of 2020, the tendency towards a decrease in rented space has continued. There is a growing trend towards renting turnkey office space, including fully equipped workspaces. Smaller and medium-sized tenants (especially those who are not ready to invest in renovation, improvement, furnishing of premises) are considering alternative options for changing offices.
“There is a high demand for open space offices without intricate renovations, within walking distance from the metro, in an area with developed infrastructure. In addition, one of the desired options for tenants is parking for bicycles and electric vehicles, as well as the opportunity to take a shower. Flexible office spaces adapted to a hybrid work format that allows employees to combine remote work from home with stay in the office are becoming the new norm,” Heliuta said.
According to him, the main consumer today is the representatives of the IT sector. “Adaptive offices are attractive for them: there are many projects and a team for 200 people – a large office is needed, few projects and the team has been reduced to 50 – a small one,” the expert said.
BUSINESS, BUSINESS CENTER, HOTEL, OFFICE CENTER, SHOPPING CENTER
Kovalska Industrial and Construction Group plans next year to implement two partnership projects for the construction of A class business centers in the central part of Kyiv, Serhiy Pylypenko, the group’s director general, has said. “We see that office real estate is a segment in which there is a stable demand. Now, in partnership with two companies, we are considering two major projects in office real estate,” Pylypenko said during a press breakfast, adding that the portfolio of projects for next year includes A class office real estate for 100,000 square meters in the central district of Kyiv.
He explained that both projects are currently at the stage of developing a concept and choosing an architectural company, and already in 2020 it is planned to begin its implementation.
“This will be construction from scratch. The first office complex (four to five buildings) will have a total area of about 60,000-70,000 square meters and the second is two office buildings of 12,000 square meters. One of them we want to implement according to the LEED Silver green building standards,” the Kovalska Group CEO said.
As reported, Kovalska is at the final stage of purchase of a land plot in Lviv region, where it plans in the second quarter of 2020 to build a plant for the production of dry construction mixes with a design capacity of 120,000 tonnes per year. In general, the work can last about two years, but the group intends to complete them by the end of 2021. The preliminary project cost is estimated at $15-20 million.
