Krost will build housing and social facilities in Mariupol

Officials in charge of the construction industry have recently been increasingly declaring developers’ plans to start work in the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, without naming them. But as Kommersant found out, the Krost concern of Alexei Dobashin may be added to the Roskapstroy controlled by the Ministry of Construction, which is already building housing and social facilities in new territories. The company, which is a prominent participant in state construction projects, has the production facilities for such large projects. Other developers are not yet in a hurry to advertise their plans in the annexed regions, obviously fearing possible sanctions risks.

As three sources told Kommersant in the development market, Aleksey Dobashin’s Krost will build housing and social infrastructure in the territories annexed to the Russian Federation, including Mariupol. According to them, the company is now preparing to enter this market. The company declined to comment.

To implement large projects in new regions, Krost has facilities, including 19 sites for the production of concrete and reinforced concrete panels for the construction of 300 thousand square meters. m of housing per year. These production facilities have already allowed the company to receive large orders in Moscow for almost 15 billion rubles over the past year and a half. including under the housing renovation program, follows from the public procurement data. In addition, Krost is building the industrial park Rudnevo in the east of the capital, where it is planned to launch the production of drones. Vladimir Putin visited this site in April.

The authorities in charge of the construction industry say that construction and restoration work is actively unfolding in the new territories. Cementum told Kommersant that they saw an increase in cement supplies to new regions – this, in turn, led to a doubling of the delivery time for raw materials within the country and a shortage of 20% of transportation capacity.

Officials also talk about the plans of large developers to start working in new regions. So, last week, within the framework of the SPIEF, the head of the Ministry of Construction, Irek Fayzullin, said that projects of three unnamed companies are already starting in Mariupol, Volnovakha and Donetsk, and three more developers are preparing documents for building sites in Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. On Wednesday, the Ministry of Construction and the office of Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin did not respond to Kommersant’s request.

The cost of restoration work in the annexed territories in the budget of the Russian Federation is classified, as RTVI previously believed, under the wording “special infrastructure project.” Financing of this item of expenditure for 2023-2025 is provided at the level of more than 377 billion rubles. It is possible that in the process of restoration work and the construction of social and infrastructure facilities, this amount will increase markedly.

Developers who have decided to enter the LND, DPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions rely more on government orders, which, according to Mikhail Burmistrov, general director of Infoline-Analytics, “guarantees payment for the work.” At the same time, the demand for commercial housing in these regions is unlikely to appear in the near future, the expert believes.

Krost is still one of the first large private developers whose plans to start work in the annexed territories became known. Prior to this, the start of restoration work in a number of cities in the DPR was announced by the FAA “Roskapstroy” controlled by the Ministry of Construction. In May of this year, as follows from the SPARK-Interfax database, this structure registered LLC Specialized Developer RKS-Development in Mariupol, probably for housing construction projects. The ex-minister of construction of the Tula region, Konstantin Lopukhov, who also received a 2% stake in RKS-Development, became the general director of the new company.

At the beginning of this year, Ilshat Nigmatullin, Granel Group, published a vacancy for the head of the production and technical department in Mariupol on the HeadHunter portal. The source of Kommersant in the real estate market also knows that the developer is considering the possibility of building facilities in this city. Granel declined to comment.

Other major developers interviewed by Kommersant also refused to discuss the possibility of working in new territories. It is quite obvious that companies are trying to avoid the risks of adding owners and top managers to the EU and US sanctions lists, Mikhail Burmistrov believes. At the same time, Kommersant’s interlocutor on the market says that the selection of contractors, for example, for state-owned construction projects in the LPR, DPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, is taking place behind closed doors. This allows them not to advertise their presence in these regions, he adds.

However, the risks of sanctions are not the only problem for developers when working in the annexed territories. They will have to pay builders working in conditions of increased danger at least twice as much as in other regions of the Russian Federation, says Mr. Burmistrov. In addition, according to him, the cost of construction in these territories is higher due to the need to transport almost all building materials from Russia, with the high cost of logistics due to the risk premium.

Daria Andrianova