Three pits have already been dug at the construction site on Pravdy Avenue, and construction is associated with the well-known company Stolitsa Group.
In Kyiv, in the Vinogradar residential area (Podolsky district), at the intersection of Pravdy Avenue and Vygovskogo Street, a new construction site has appeared, where work is already ongoing - builders have dug three pits and installed piles for the foundation.
Telegraph journalists twice visited the site of the latest construction in Vinogradar and found out the details.
What happens on a construction site
Let us note that earlier journalist Dmitry Bunetsky wrote about the construction on Pravdy Avenue at the roundabout: “The construction of the remains of the apple orchards on Vinogradar began quietly and routinely. On the right you can see how piles are being drilled for the foundations. On the left is the future of what could become Kyiv's largest park. Unfortunately, it was a comfortable area.”
Now special equipment is working behind a two-meter green fence, sand is being removed from the dug pit, and several construction crews are working in different locations. An electrical substation and a construction crane were installed on the site, as well as entrances for trucks with special equipment.
It is noteworthy that near the two entrances directly to the construction site there is no information about the customers and construction workers, there is no passport for the construction site or any other contact information. Consequently, whether the builders have all the permits and approved documentation is still unknown.
Unofficially, the builders told reporters that the developer of the site is supposedly the well-known capital construction company Stolitsa Group. “This is the same company that built the residential complex across the road, that is, Stolitsa Group,” Telegraph’s interlocutor anonymously admitted.
It should be noted that on the other side of Vygovskogo Street, the so-called “Warsaw microdistrict” was erected, the customer of which was the state enterprise “Agrokombinat Pushcha-Voditsa”, which owned this land. And the developer is Stolitsa Group.
According to the YouControl analytical system, the land plot on which pits are being dug for new buildings is also owned by the State Enterprise “Agricultural Complex Pushcha-Voditsa”. The total area of the land plot is 86 hectares. (cadastral number - 8000000000:91:400:0101) Its official value, according to state estimates, is 1.3 billion hryvnia (as of 2021).
The intended purpose of the land is “for the construction and maintenance of an apartment building with retail, entertainment and market infrastructure.”
At the same time, according to data from the Unified State Electronic System in the field of construction, on June 2, 2023, the State Inspectorate of Architecture and Urban Planning of Ukraine issued a permit to carry out construction work on this site (registration number of the permit is IU013230530416).
The name of the object is “Complex development of microdistricts XI, XII, XV, XVII and partial development of microdistricts XVI, XVIII, XIX of a multifunctional residential area adjacent to the street. Hetman Ivan Vygovsky (formerly Marshal Grechko St.), ave. Pravdy and st. Gas pipeline in the Podolsky district of Kyiv (XI and XII microdistricts).”
The customer for the construction is Agrokombinat Pushcha-Voditsa, and the general contractor is Monolit Stroyservis LLC. It is noteworthy that, according to media reports, Monolit Stroyservis at one time acted as the general contractor for the construction of the Warsaw Plus residential complex (in the above-mentioned Warsaw Quarter) from the development company Stolitsa Group.
According to this construction permit, 30 multi-storey residential buildings up to 25 floors high (almost 6 thousand apartments), parking lots, a school, kindergartens, and shopping centers should appear on this site.
What else is known about the developer Stolitsa Group
As Telegraph reported, the owner of the Stolitsa Group is the famous and influential metropolitan businesswoman Vladislava Molchanova. Her business partner Denis Moskal heads the Permanent Commission of the Kyiv City Council on environmental policy.
According to estimates by some domestic media, since 2010, the “Capital Group” has built about a hundred houses, and dozens more projects are in the process of construction. Molchanova was also named one of the sponsors of the Batkivshchyna party. And during the previous presidential elections in Ukraine, she was a confidant of Yulia Tymoshenko.
Molchanova’s support for other political forces in the Kyiv City Council was allegedly provided by Denis Komarnitsky, former co-chairman of the “Leonid Chernovetsky Bloc” faction in the Kiev City Council in 2008-2010.
Molchanova is also known for her social activities. Since the beginning of Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2014, she has been actively involved in volunteering, helping ATO units. And after February 24, 2022, it supports the Defense Forces.
What factors make the situation scandalous? Historical and environmental contexts
From open sources it is known that the history of the Winegrower begins in 1848, when the Saxon Gottlieb Christer moved to Kyiv, having bought a plot of land from Prince Esterhazy on Priorka near the Wind Mountains. Having cleared it of trees, in 1850 he founded the company “Gardening and Seed Farming. "IN. Christer." Within 40 years of its existence, a blooming garden and a nursery of fruit trees, vegetables and flowers have appeared on this territory. After Christer's death, his sons continued his business, and already in 1900 Christer's gardening covered an area of 128 acres and 5 million seedlings.
In 1907, the Persian citizen Isaac Ivanovich Bekas received from the city government a 24-year lease of 16 plots of land on the Wind Mountains with an area of 17 acres for growing grapes. It is Bekas who owns the name of the area “Vinogradar”.
During the Soviet period in the 1930s, private farms began to be united into labor communes engaged in the cultivation of grapes and melons, and the area of land grew from 17 to 74 hectares. In 1960, this farm merged with the Pushcha-Voditsa state farm, and its total area was expanded to more than 3 thousand hectares (of which 400 hectares are within Kyiv). To the right and left of Vygovskogo Street, state farmers laid out orchards (partly for the production of juices), which extended to Severo-Syretskaya and Berkovtsov streets.
In the 1990s, the gardens began to fall into disrepair, and developers gradually began to take a closer look at state lands, building residential complexes instead of gardens and green areas.