A large hotel may be built on the site of the Orlyonok children’s camp near Gelendzhik

Gennady Timchenko’s partner in the wine business, Vladimir Kolbin, entered into a large hotel project. He became a co-owner of the Orlyonok children’s health center in the village of Kabardinka near Gelendzhik, on the site of which it is planned to build a hotel complex with almost 980 rooms. The volume of investments can reach 18 billion rubles. Experts predict that in the high season there will be up to 3 thousand vacationers at the hotel.

In mid-November, Vladimir Kolbin received a 15% stake in Orlenok Children’s Center LLC, it follows from Kartoteka.ru. The Krasnodar Direct Investment Fund Housing and Communal Services (DFI Housing and Communal Services; 45% of shares) and Elena Bagirova (10%) also became co-owners of the company. They participate with Mr. Kolbin in other companies: LLC SZ Tonkiy Mys and SZ Gelendzhik. Another 30% went to Alexander Spasov, who manages the housing and communal services LLC SZ Dombay-2, which is controlled by the Seed Fund. Mr. Spasov explained to Kommersant that he is not an employee of Mr. Kolbin. He refused to talk in more detail about the fate of “Eaglet”. Rostekelectroseti LLC, where Ms. Bagirova controls 42.5% of the shares, did not answer Kommersant. It was not possible to contact FPI Housing and Communal Services.

Vladimir Kolbin became famous several years ago. The NP “Development of Agrarian Initiatives” created by him and Mr. Timchenko in 2018 gained control over LLC “Lazurnaya Yagoda”, on the balance sheet of which is the winery “Divnomorskoe Estate” (see “Kommersant” dated January 9, 2019). The businessman is also the sole founder of Divnomorye JSC, which is also engaged in growing grapes, it follows from the data Kartoteka.ru. In 2022, Vladimir Kolbin was included in the UK sanctions list as the director of Gelendzhik Sea Port LLC. It was not possible to get a comment from Vladimir Kolbin: his structures did not respond to Kommersant.

Before the transition to the new owners, the Orlyonok Children’s Center was controlled by Andrey Tatarintsev from 2015, with whom Kommersant was unable to promptly contact. As follows from the Unified State Register of Real Estate, the children’s center rents two plots of 4.6 hectares in the village of Kabardinka near Gelendzhik. The cadastral value of the sites is 100.6 million rubles. Previously, there was a children’s camp at this place, as follows from data on social networks. But Alexander Spasov told Kommersant that the children’s center is only a marketing name invented by the former owner. “In reality, there was no camp here; information has been verified since the 1950s,” he says.

Now on the Orlyonka site there is a recreation center “Eco-resort South”, occupying two buildings. There they explained to Kommersant that the company knew about the intention to sell the property several years ago, but now they have not heard about the change of owner. Managing partner of Ivashkevich Hospitality Stanislav Ivashkevich estimates the value of Orlyonok’s property at 181–271 million rubles.

A Kommersant source familiar with the project explains that the construction of a five-star hotel complex with 979 rooms is planned on the site, to be managed by the Turkish operator River Rock, which previously developed Rixos Hotels in Russia. River Rock itself did not answer Kommersant. Financing of the project, according to a Kommersant source, can be undertaken by Dom.RF Bank, which, according to SPARK, holds the shares of all new owners of Orlyonok as collateral. Kommersant Bank did not answer. Stanislav Ivashkevich estimates the cost of implementing the project at 18 billion rubles.

Mr. Ivashkevich thinks that the risk of a new project in Gelendzhik is too high a density: “In the high season, there will be about 3 thousand vacationers in a relatively small area.” Although he calls the site itself promising: Kabardinka is located near the airport, the place has good views due to the elevation difference, and new hotels are being built nearby. The payback period for the hotel project, according to Mr. Ivashkevich, will be about 12 years. If part is sold as apartments, then about five years. The general director of the tour operator Dolphin, Sergei Romashkin, calls Gelendzhik a sought-after destination, the flow of tourists to which is currently hampered by a moratorium on air travel. Tourists with high budgets are rarely willing to travel by car or train, he notes. The opening of Krasnodar airport, according to the expert, will smooth out the situation.

Alexandra Mertsalova, Anatoly Kostyrev