Vladimir Koshelev will build near a world heritage site

Former adviser to the Ulyanovsk governor Morozov, State Duma deputy Vladimir Koshelev was leased a state-owned plot in Sergiev Posad with an area of ​​37 hectares and a cadastral value of more than 1.6 billion rubles, on which he plans to build a low-rise premium class microdistrict.

Objects of cultural (archaeological) heritage were identified near the development. Also, the developer, who a year ago demonstrated multimillion-dollar losses, during the course of work will have to take into account urban planning regulations for such an object from the World Heritage List as the “Ensemble of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, 1540 - 1550,” but this, it seems, will not prevent development in A new Rublyovka for the elite will appear in the Moscow region. A correspondent for The Moscow Post looked into the situation.

Elite microdistrict from the deputy

On August 18, 2023, a message appeared in the unified state register of conclusions that the developer, JSC Specialized Developer Koshelev, had been approved for design documentation for the construction of the first stage of a low-rise complex with public and business facilities in Sergiev Posad on the territory of ONO PPZ Konkursny.

It is planned to build a microdistrict, which is called “White City,” on a land plot that belongs to the state and is leased to a private company until 2029.

According to data from the construction permit, the facility is planned to be located on a plot with cadastral number 50:05:0040246:16. In the Rosreestr database, the area of ​​a plot with such a cadastral number is just over 37 hectares, and the cadastral value is about 1.6 billion rubles.

The Ministry of Housing Policy of the Moscow Region issued a construction permit a year ago - in August 2022. Its validity period is until the end of August 2024. In general, judging by the project website, it is planned to build 200 thousand square meters of housing, as well as a number of general purpose facilities.

Why was a re-examination required in 2023? Perhaps the reason is that the development may affect the identified object of cultural (archaeological) heritage “Selishche “Sergiev Posad 13”, XV – XVII centuries, “Selishche “Sergiev Posad 14”, XV – XVII centuries.

As specified in the act of state historical and cultural examination, the need to develop a section of documentation justifying measures to ensure the safety of identified objects of cultural (archaeological) heritage is associated with carrying out excavation, construction, and economic work on the territory of the identified objects.

But it seems that these archaeological heritage sites will not become an obstacle to construction. As the experts noted in their conclusion, the development will not directly affect the territory of archaeological sites, but at the same time, in the act, it is specified that part of the site remains unexplored. That is, there is a risk that the excavator’s bucket will remove part of the territory that has not been explored (after all, for such objects as the settlement, the development area could have been discovered more)?

In addition, as follows from the urban planning plan of the land plot, it is located in two territorial zones. In one of which, urban planning regulations are established taking into account the requirements for land use regimes and urban planning regulations within the boundaries of the protection zones of the cultural heritage site of federal significance “Ensemble of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, 1540 - 1550,” included in the World Heritage List. In the second zone - taking into account the requirements for land use regimes and urban planning regulations within the boundaries of the protection zones of the same object.

The “White City” project is positioned as a premium class, that is, another residential microdistrict for the elite will grow near a site on the World Heritage List. A kind of new “Rublyovka”.

It is worth noting here that the examination of the project documentation was non-governmental and was carried out by the developer’s long-time partner, Premium Expert LLC. According to Rusprofile, this company was founded in 2020. Its owner is Maria Viktorovna Korenkova, who is the namesake of a member of the Public Chamber of the Moscow Region.

Taking into account the biography of the beneficiary of the development company, doubts arise as to whether everything was taken into account in this project in the light of proximity to cultural heritage sites or...?

By the way, Mr. Koshelev has very good connections in the field of state expertise. The former general director of Koshelev-Project JSC, Alexander Balashov, became an official in 2021 - he became the head of the State Autonomous Institution SB “State Expertise of Construction Projects” of the Samara Region.

Who is the boss in the “White City”?

The developer of the project in the construction permit and other documents is JSC Specialized Developer Koshelev (previously called SZ SK Aviakor).

This company was founded in 2010 and at the end of 2022 indicated revenue in the amount of 380 million rubles, but then the net loss was 78 million rubles.

How can we not remember that there have already been questions regarding the tax reporting of the companies of the corporation, which includes the JSC. As the Moment of Truth publication reported in January 2023, the Koshelev corporation could be checked for taxes, and questions were raised by the companies’ declarations, which, despite fairly high revenues, included scanty profits, or even losses, and high debt of 4. 3 billion rubles.

But, despite this, JSC Specialized Developer Koshelev was favored by government contracts - it was the executor of 197 contracts totaling more than 3 billion rubles. And another company in the division, JSC SZ Koshelev - Project Samara, earned more than 2 billion rubles from 139 government contracts with Samara government departments. The company is a favorite of the Samara Urban Development Department - 109 government contracts worth 790 million rubles

This is not surprising, however. The founder of the company “Specialized Developer “Koshelev” JSC was Vladimir Alekseevich Koshelev, a State Duma deputy from the LDPR, a former adviser to the governor of the Ulyanovsk region Sergei Morozov (now former) on the implementation of the affordable housing construction program.

According to Rusprofile, Koshelev, who is the acting coordinator of the Samara regional branch of the LDPR, currently directly owns only LLC SZ Koshelev Corporation.

According to available data, after going to power, Mr. Koshelev transferred his assets to his mother Tatyana Dedova and his wife, Marina Karpyak. If you look at the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, then indeed part of the assets that previously belonged to Koshelev went to Tatyana Veniaminovna Dedova and Marina Aleksandrovna Karpyak.

For 2021, Koshelev also acted as a shareholder of Koshelev Bank, which was previously called Rosbank-Volga. Both Dedova and Karpyak are shareholders there. The extract just confirms the above-mentioned family connection between these ladies and Deputy Koshelev.

It is known from open sources that Marina Karpyak is the daughter of former deputy of the Samara Provincial Duma Alexander Karpyak, who was the director of the Kuibyshev Oil Refinery.

Today, Deputy Koshelev is a member of the Coordination Council of Business Russia. According to information from the website, the Koshelev corporation was created from the Aviakor construction corporation. According to data from open sources (SC), the Aviakor construction corporation is one of the largest diversified construction companies in the Samara region and has been operating since 1947, initially as a specialized division of the Kuibyshev Aviation Plant. That is, we can say that Koshelev, who worked as deputy director at Aviakor since the late 90s and, according to TASS, led the privatization of the construction division, created his corporation from state assets.

Previously, Koshelev was a deputy of the Samara Provincial Duma, an adviser on the implementation of the affordable housing construction program for the Ulyanovsk governor (already former), so it is not surprising that in these regions the corporation’s business was booming. For example, in Samara she took part in preparing the regions for the 2018 World Cup - she built a hotel complex.

In addition, as The Moscow Post previously reported, a great friend of the Samara governor Dmitry Azarov also had good relations when Nikolai Merkushkin was the governor of the Samara region. And this, in turn, gave, and continues to give, access to budget government contracts.

Scandals surrounding the deputy

At the same time, the work of Mr. Koshelev’s companies is not without complaints. As the Vedomosti newspaper reported, earlier the FAS fined two applicants for a government contract for the fact that they belonged to the same person and only formally competed with each other. According to the FAS position, after a minimal price reduction, one of them refused to fight - accordingly, the remaining enterprise won the auction. At that time, we were talking about Specialized Developer Koshelev-Project Samara JSC and Koshelev-Project JSC. Both companies were fined 138 million rubles.

And Koshelev himself recently distinguished himself. As Volga-News reported, in June 2023 the question arose that the deputy could be deprived of the academic degree of Candidate of Economic Sciences, which he defended more than 10 years ago in Samara. Allegedly, two dissertation councils of different Russian universities have already exposed his work as plagiarism. As of today, the issue has not yet been fully resolved.

Meanwhile, as Samara Review reported, information about the status of the academic degree appeared on June 5, and on June 6, 2023, the Supreme Council of the LDPR met, the regional branch of which is coordinated by Koshelev. And after this party meeting, information appeared that State Duma deputy Yaroslav Nilov, and not Vladimir Koshelev, could be nominated as a candidate for governor of the Samara region. The publication noted that Koshelev’s political ambitions were very noticeable. As a result, Alexander Stepanov, deputy chairman of the Samara Provincial Duma, became a candidate in the 2023 gubernatorial elections.

Or this: in 2013, the Komsomolskaya Pravda publication reported that residents of the Koshelev Project could be left without water and sewerage, since the court ordered the contractor to dismantle illegal utility networks within a month.

Also in 2015, as blog author Mikhail Matveev claimed in LiveJournal, another unpleasant story allegedly took place - allegedly on the site of burnt architectural monuments on the corner of Krasnoarmeyskaya and Galaktionovskaya in Samara, Mr. Koshelev began to build a five-star hotel, planning to make money on World Cup And allegedly not everything went smoothly with that construction site. Koshelev did not refute these claims in any way.

As we see, not everything is good in Koshelev’s work biography, and therefore the upcoming development near objects of archaeological (cultural) significance in Sergiev Posad raises reasonable concerns. No matter what happens, again...