Sberbank will participate in the construction of an elite apartment complex in the Patriarch's Ponds area

He bought half of the Levenson Cursive Printing House renovation project from Vesper.

The company "Sokol Finance" has acquired from the developer of luxury housing Vesper 50% in LLC "Specialized developer "Trekhprudny", on the balance of which there is a project for the reconstruction of buildings of the Levenson printing house in the area of Patriarch's Ponds. According to SPARK-Interfax, the deal was closed on July 27. The beneficiaries of Sokol Finance are not disclosed there. But the company's CEO Evgeny Malygin also heads Sberbank Investments Limited and Sberbank Finance Limited. Two consultants who worked with the project confirm that this structure really represents the interests of Sberbank. His representative did not respond to Vedomosti's request. Vesper declined to comment.

Levenson's cursive printing house was built in 1900 by architect Fyodor Shekhtel in the Art Nouveau style specifically for the printing house, which moved there from Rakhmanovsky Lane. There, for example, the first collection of poems by Marina Tsvetaeva was printed. After the October Revolution, the buildings were nationalized and transferred to the printing house of the Mospoligraf Trust. In 2013-2016, restoration was carried out there – elements of the facade and interior decoration lost during the Soviet period were restored (decorative arches, grand staircase in the administrative building, Gutenberg bas-relief, medusa lantern, etc.). The complex itself (now its area is 11,181 sq. m. m) is an object of cultural heritage of federal significance.

Initially, the building of the cursive printing house was controlled through the ZPIF "Central" The Bank of Moscow, which later became part of the VTB Group. In 2017 she put it up for sale, but then it was not possible to find buyers. A year later, it was acquired by Roman Trotsenko's Aeon Corporation. However, she subsequently decided to sell the project. One of the sources of Vedomosti then attributed this to the company's lack of extensive experience in the reconstruction of historical objects. The buyer of the complex eventually became Vesper, which has plans to place luxury apartments in its buildings.

Vesper has not previously disclosed the project parameters. However, it follows from the data of the urban planning support system that 11 apartments with a total area of 4333 sq. m. will appear in the printing house building itself, and in the buildings attached to it in 1996 there will be 13 more apartments for 4101 sq. m. The complex itself is planned to be commissioned in the third quarter of 2027, the project declaration says, posted on the portal of the Unified Information System of Housing Construction. It also says that Sberbank is the lender of the developer in this project.

Sberbank lends to the developer's projects, and in this case also acts as a financial partner, says Mikael Kazaryan, Head of the Capital Markets and Investment Department at IBC Real Estate. He estimates the value of the stake in it at about 0.7–1 billion rubles. Investments in the project, according to him, will amount to 3-4 billion rubles, and the proceeds from the sale will be about 9-10 billion rubles. Ekaterina Rumyantseva, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kalinka Group, believes that the cost of lots in the apartment complex will average about 2.2 million rubles per 1 sq. m.

The apartment complex will be in demand here, consultants believe. Patriarch's Ponds have an established image of one of the most expensive and prestigious districts in the capital, recalls NF Group partner Andrey Solovyov. According to him, the offer here is quite limited. So, there are only two residential projects on sale – Malaya Bronnaya, 15 and The Patricks (their developer is R4S Group). The cost of lots here is about 3.4 million rubles per 1 sq. m, he adds.

Vesper has been cooperating with Sberbank for a long time, the consultants interviewed by Vedomosti remind. In particular, in 2020. Sberbank has become the owner of 50% in the Vesper Tverskaya hotel and residential complex (ex-Fairmont & Vesper) near the metro station "Mayakovskaya" and in the Lucky residential complex near the metro station"1905 Street". And in May last year, its structure received 10% in LLC "Monochrome", on the balance of which there is a business center on 95,200 sq. m. m on Shabolovka. It is also planned to be rebuilt into housing.

The developer himself specializes in the construction of luxury housing in the center of Moscow. The total portfolio of the company is more than 1 million sq. m. Among the company's projects, for example, Nabokov on Ostozhenka and Cloud Nine on Bolshaya Polyanka. The owners of the developer are Boris Azarenko and Denis Kitaev. The company also has projects in the business class segment. For example, Lucky on 189,000 sq. m. In addition, it will develop the territory of the industrial zone of the Berezhkovskaya embankment, the total area of which is 26.5 hectares. There, the developer will build a multifunctional complex on 667,445 sq. m, of which 333,723 sq. m will be for housing.