The Kyiv City Council at a session on Thursday, September 20, made a decision to lease two land parcels with a total area of 22.2 ha located at 8, Simyi Khokhlovykh to companies UNIT Zhytloinvest and UNIT Holdings to build a residential and office complex. A total of 71 lawmakers backed the lease of 8.2 ha land parcel to UNIT Zhytloinvest and 83 lawmakers supported the lease of 14 ha to UNIT Holdings. As reported, KAN Development and UDP in 2019 will start building a residential complex of 170,000 square meters in Kyiv-based UNIT.City innovative park. The share of housing will be around 30% of the park.
The project provides a mix of housing of business and comfort classes. The construction is scheduled to begin in 2019, and the first stage, which will account for 15% of the total area (about 25,000 square meters), will be commissioned in 12-14 months.
KAN Development is also engaged in joint development for the construction of a six-story business center on UNIT.City’s area. Its commissioning is planned before the end of 2018. Its total area is about 13,000 square meters. At the same time, preliminary lease agreements have already been signed for 90% of the area. Under this project, UDP and KAN Development act as co-investors.
Apart from housing, UNIT.City will also have a university, a school, a kindergarten in the future.
As reported with reference to founder of the UFuture investment group and K.Fund Vasyl Khmelnytsky, it is planned that the area of the UNIT.City innovation park in Kyiv will be expanded to 26 hectares from 19 hectares (as of May 2018).
The UNIT.City innovation park officially opened in April 2017 on the territory of the former Kyiv Motorcycle Plant. Its territory comprises the Chasopys-UNIT co-working facility, IT school UNIT Factory, three laboratories, a business campus, a fund and five accelerators.
According to UNIT.City’s website, four new business campuses, three accelerators, four funds will be created in the park before 2019. The number of resident companies will be increased to 100. By 2025, the park should include 25 hectares of space for work and leisure, as well as more than 300 companies and R&D laboratories.
KYIV CITY, LEASING, OFFICES, RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS, UNIT.CITY
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is about to invest from $2 million to $4 million in the development of infrastructure of auctions stimulating renewable energy, EBRD Deputy Director in Ukraine Marina Petrov said during her interview to the Reform.Energy website. “This is the money that we are already asking for now from the donors in order to launch a high-quality auction,” she said. She explained that market players might not be able to perceive poorly organized auctions. “This is very important to keep up the balance of interests in order to receive the most outstanding result,” Petrov said. The auctions will have to be transparent, understandable and in line with legislation.
According to her, the EBRD during Ukraine’s transition to the auctions stimulating renewable energy is ready to share its experience from similar auctions in those countries which were the first ones to introduce such tools. Such or similar auctions are held in Turkey, Poland, Bulgaria, Jordan, Egypt, and Armenia, she said.
The amount is to be allocated within the EBRD’s USELF-III lending facility approved in July this year in the amount of EUR 250 million to support private renewable energy projects in Ukraine, she said.
Speaking at the Ukrainian Financial Forum organized by the ICU Invest Group in Odesa, the EBRD representative said that market operators had questions as for who would be a balancing player on this market. She said that the EBRD was working jointly with the U.S. Agency for International Development to create the market of balancing facilities and invest the funds in more mobile parts of the system, e.g. batteries, gas turbines. “This is next year’s agenda,” Petrov said.
In general, she described the situation on the renewables market as a “quick sprint” – the investment is to be made while the current feed-in tariffs are in effect.
“We’ve got many investors who are mulling over investment this and next year. We have fewer investors who are preparing projects for 2020-2021. We see there will be a steep decline,” she said.
In this connection, she called on the adoption of a law on renewable energy auctions by the end of the current year.
Ukraine has great potential for the development of other sectors of renewable energy, mainly biofuel and small hydro facilities, she said.
DEVELOPMENT, EUROPEAN BANK, INVEST, RECONSTRUCTION, RENEWABLE ENERGY
The volume of completed construction works in Ukraine in August 2018 decreased by 1.1% compared to August 2017, whereas growth in July 2018 from July 2017 was 9.7%. The report does not include data from temporarily occupied territories, namely the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and partly Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the State Statistics Service of Ukraine has said. The volume of completed construction works in August 2018 from July 2018 decreased by 6.4% (according to seasonally adjusted data, it decreased by 6.9%), whereas there was a 5.8% fall in July 2018 from June 2018.
Residential and nonresidential construction declined in August 2018 from August 2017, while the construction of engineering facilities was on the rise. According to unadjusted data, residential construction saw a 13.3% decline, while the decline of nonresidential construction was 5.4%. The construction of engineering facilities increased 6.4%.
The construction of residential buildings in August 2018 from July 2018 decreased by 9.9%, the construction of nonresidential buildings grew by 5.5%, engineering facilities fell by 10%.
In January-August 2018, a decrease in construction work compared to the same period of 2017 was recorded in 11 regions of Ukraine and Kyiv city, including in Luhansk (by 43.7%, to UAH 233.2 million), Sumy (by 20.9%, to UAH 635.7 million) and Zakarpattia (by 17.8%, to UAH 710.5 million) regions.
The highest increase in completed construction works in the eight months ending August 2018 was recorded in Odesa (by 43.7%, to UAH 9.597 billion) Khmelnytsky (by 32.5%, to UAH 1.663 billion) and Ivano-Frankivsk (by 31.4%, to UAH 1.7 billion) regions.
In Kyiv, the volume of construction work in the eight months ending August 2018 fell by 3.7%, to UAH 16.741 billion.
One troy ounce=31.10 grams
Ukraine has raised natural gas reserves in its underground storage facilities (UGS) by 8.374 billion cubic meters (bcm) after the end of the heating season, JSC Ukrtransgaz has said.
Thus, from April 8 to September 22, gas reserves in storage facilities more than doubled, to 15.81 bcm from 7.435 bcm
According to Interfax-Ukraine’s estimates, gas stocks on September 1 through September 22 increased by 1.17 bcm (53.19 million cubic meters [mcm] a day), in August by 1.793 bcm (57.85 mcm per day), in July they expanded by 1.655 bcm (53.38 mcm a day), in June by 1.622 bcm (54.09 mcm per day), in May by 1.632 bcm (52.65 mcm per day), on April 9 through April 30 by 500.84 mcm (22.77 mcm per day).
Ukraine had the smallest gas inventories after the 2017/18 heating season compared with the previous three seasons. Frosts in March and early April were recorded.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine expects that gas stocks as of November 1, 2018, would reach 17 bcm.
Ukrtransgaz, wholly owned by NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy, operates the system of trunk gas pipelines and 12 underground gas storage facilities of the country with a total capacity of 31 bcm.
