Лев Черной ждет гостей

Vedomosti, daily, 12.03.2010

Businessman Lev Chernoi has started a development business. As "Vedomosti" has learned, he is investing in a complex that will be built on the site of the "Mir" hotel on Novy Arbat. The project is worth 380 million euros.

Next week, ZAO Tantema will present at the MIPIM exhibition in Cannes a project for an apartment-hotel complex on the site of the "Mir" hotel on Novy Arbat. As stated in the message from Kalinka-Real Estate (the project consultant), the total area of the complex will be 186,000 sq. m (including a shopping gallery and a parking lot for 1,125 cars). The approximate investment volume is 380 million euros. In addition to the development project, Tantema owns the currently operating "Sfera" shopping center with an area of ​​12,000 sq. m on the same Novy Arbat.

The main founder of ZAO Tantema (99%), according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (EGRUL), is the co-owner of the insurance group "Spasskiye Vorota" Boris Khait. But at the end of last year, he told "Vedomosti" that he had sold this company; yesterday it was not possible to contact him.

Two real estate consultants assert that the key investor of the project is the entrepreneur Lev Chernoi. "There is a Western company that finances Tantema's projects. One of the founders of this company is Lev Chernoi," confirmed a representative of the businessman. Tantema CEO Valery Efanov, Kalinka-Real Estate's Development Director Alexei Sidorov, and a representative from Jones Lang LaSalle (another project consultant) declined to discuss the shareholders of Tantema.

According to Yefanov, the project is currently being developed and negotiated, with the laying of communications. "Tens of millions of dollars" have already been invested in the project by the company's shareholders. In the future, it is planned to attract partners or bank financing. Construction is expected to start in late 2010 or early 2011 and be completed by 2012.

Lev Cherny has not been involved in the real estate development business so far. He gained fame during the aluminum wars of the 1990s. Lev and Mikhail Cherny, along with David Rubin, acquired large stakes in KRAZ, BRAZ, SAAZ, Krasnoyarsk Hydroelectric Power Station, and Achinsk Alumina Plant. However, the brothers had a falling out and divided the assets. In the early 2000s, Lev Cherny and Rubin sold their stakes to Roman Abramovich and Boris Berezovsky for $550 million.

The website of the Institute of Prospective Scientific Research, of which Cherny is the director, states that after leaving the metallurgical business, he has been financing a number of projects related to the innovation economy, as well as engaging in scientific and public activities. He has created a public organization called "Mobilization and Development" (MIR) to promote democratic reforms.