Top-10 privatized houses of Kyiv

Top-10 privatized houses of Kyiv

With what money were houses in the city center bought by Lavrynovych’s monopolists, a manager of Kolomoisky, people of Lytvyn-Pylypyshyn, Taruta’s offshore, Myrymsky’s club and Yedin’s partner.

The buying and selling of the capital’s best real estate has always been shrouded in secrecy. As a result, people don’t know for years who is developing the nearest park or who students are being evicted for from a dormitory in the city center.

If you search very thoroughly, such information can be found in municipal newspapers, written in small print, and most often without the transaction price indicated, as well as in decisions of local authorities.

The latest good illustration is the first open land auctions in Kyiv. The mayor’s office stirred up PR around this event. However, in the dry result we only have that nobody still knows the name of the owner of the only plot purchased then.

To the credit of the new mayoralty, recently the Department of Communal Property did open part of the data about privatized objects in the 2011-2014 years, when Oleksandr Popov from the Party of Regions was in charge. Unfortunately, something prevented Vitali Klitschko’s clerks from showing the rest of the information on sales from Leonid Chernovetskyi’s era.

So we offer a selection of 10 of the most expensive real estate objects bought out of communal ownership over the last three years. For some of these cases we managed to find more information than was in the dry lines of the communal officials.

No.1. Traders of Lavrynovych’s confiscated property

32,28 million UAH – non-residential building, Mykhaila Kotsiubynskoho St. No.12, letter A, area 4024,1 sq.m. Contract dated 14 March 2012. Buyer – LLC “TD Elit Service.”

At the then exchange rate the price amounted to about $1000 per sq.m. While according to real estate sites, as of March 2012 the average price of houses in Shevchenkivskyi district of Kyiv was $2404 per sq.m., and for a thousand dollars you could only buy a beat-up apartment in a bedroom community.

Previously the premises on Kotsiubynskoho St., 12 were rented by the Ministry of Justice, then headed by Oleksandr Lavrynovych. It was used by the State Enforcement Service. Today the building is closed. The premises marked on the map under number 12-A are located in the yard of the former office of the state enforcers. In the building some windows are boarded up, and trash is scattered in the entrance.

In 2010 the year “TD Elit Service” became one of four firms the Ministry of Justice appointed as monopolists for selling confiscated property. Only the replacement of Lavrynovych with Olena Lukash led to the contract between “TD Elit Service” and the Ministry of Justice being terminated for violating its terms.

The director of “TD Elit Service” in 2011-2012 years was Anton Shubenkov, who in 2012 ran for parliament on the party list of “Ukraine – Forward!” of Natalia Korolevska (No.123).

Shubenkov is also known as executive director of DECPM Group, which works in the development sector. In 2010 Shabunkov together with the first vice-president of the Union of Oil Producers of Russia Ziya Isayev proposed to the government of Crimea an investment project for a plant to convert waste into oil. The subsequent fate of this phenomenal project is unknown.

In September 2012 “TD Elit Service” was re-registered to Rustam Dzhambulatov, a native of Grozny in the Chechen Republic. Since July 2013 the firm has been in the process of liquidation. Thus the fate of the building on Kotsiubynskoho is completely unclear. And it looks exactly like this – an abandoned garbage dump in the center of the capital, which symbolizes the rapid rise and fall of businessmen who lose everything with a change of minister.

No.2. A piece of “Globus”

27,60 million UAH ($3450 per sq.m.) – non-residential premises No. 48-a (group of premises No.1) Instytutska St. No.2, letter A, area 1000 sq.m. Purchase and sale agreement dated 18 December 2013. Buyer – LLC “ADS-Real Estate,” founded on 19 November 2011 by Dmytro Oleksandrovych Spivak. This concerns one of the premises in the above-ground shopping center “Globus” on Maidan Nezalezhnosti.

No.3. Pylypyshyn, Lytvyn and netsuke

26,61 million UAH ($2319 per sq.m.) – three-story non-residential building on Taras Shevchenko Boulevard No.23, letter A, area – 1434,1 sq.m. Purchase decision dated 10 August 2012. Buyer – NGO “Netsuke.”

Previously this premises housed the Pedagogical College at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, which in 2007 was joined to Hrynchenko University. At the same time the college was forced to vacate the premises. Since 2009 the NGO “Netsuke” rented this building, and in 2012 bought it.

Netsuke is a Japanese miniature sculpture used as a button, keychain or clasp. By the way – it’s a rather expensive hobby. In Ukraine netsuke collectors include Oleksandr Feldman (Kharkiv’s Barabashovo market) and the deputy governor of Dnipropetrovsk region of Ihor Kolomoisky, Borys Filatov, who is about to become an MP. At one time Filatov headed the branch of the International Society of Netsuke Collectors in the CIS countries and boasted that the most expensive netsuke figurine in the collection costs $185 thousand.

Returning to the aforementioned NGO “Netsuke”, in the distant 2005 it did indeed hold specialized exhibitions in Kyiv on Kruhlouniversytetska, 4. Then the gallery was closed and the organizers announced on their site that they were looking for a new premises.

However, after renting the building on Shevchenko Boulevard the gallery never resumed its work. The only mention in open sources is that the lucky tenant, and later owner, obtained permission to cordon off the sidewalk during repair work.

In 2010 another organization was registered in addition to NGO “Netsuke” – NGO “Netsuke Association.” As the head of the “Netsuke Association” Oleksandr Derkachenko told “Nashi Groshi”, now it is their organization that carries out artistic activities, and they still have no premises. Derkachenko said he was removed from the composition of NGO “Netsuke” and denied any relation to the owners of the building on Shevchenko Boulevard.

When buying the building in 2012 NGO “Netsuke” was represented by Vitalii Pizhuk, who later became its leader.

Viktor Pylypyshyn and Volodymyr Lytvyn

In 2011-2012 years Pizhuk worked as director of LLC “Send IT”, when the founder there was Oleksandr Pylypyshyn, son of Viktor Pylypyshyn, former head of Shevchenkivskyi RDA (2006-2010). It is in Shevchenkivskyi district that our building is located.

However Pizhuk is linked to another well-known name, since he was also director of LLC “Ukrainian-European Consulting Group” (“UECG”), which was registered at the same address – that is on Taras Shevchenko Boulevard, 23-A. The founder of the enterprise was the Virgin Islands company “Xander Productions LTD” (today re-registered to “Galorista Ventures LTD”).

The Virgin “Xander” acted as co-founder of Zhytomyr LLC “Agrovest Group”. The director of that company, Oleksandr Yushchenko, was the founder of Volodymyr Lytvyn’s Charity Foundation “Future of Polissia”. In addition, Oleksandr Yushchenko has a joint company PP “Galex-Agro” with Oleksandra Lytvyn, daughter of the former head of the State Border Guard Service.

At the beginning of 2010 a black cat ran between Pylypyshyn and Lytvyn, and the head of Shevchenkivskyi RDA left the ranks of the People’s Party of Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Lytvyn. The reason for the split was that part of the People’s Party supported the policy of then-mayor Chernovetskyi, while Pylypyshyn had long had his sights on that chair himself.

Whether the split of the Pylypyshyn-Lytvyn tandem is related to subsequent events is unknown. However, in 2011 the firm “UECG” moved out from Shevchenko Boulevard 23-A and changed its offshore owner.

After Pizhuk, “UECG” in 2011 was headed by Inna Furman, who is also listed as the founder of the Zhytomyr charity fund “A Step Toward People”, which is registered at the same address as Lytvyn’s foundation “Future of Polissia.”

No.4. Kolomoisky’s manager and a tender favorite

24,24 million UAH ($1427 per sq.m.) non-residential building on Ivana Mazepy St., 6-A area 2123,2 sq.m. Purchase and sale agreement dated 10.07.2014. Buyer – LLC “Trading House “Eco-Service”.

The building is known as the Ipsilanti estate, built in 1798 in the classicist style. Kostyantyn Ipsilanti lived here after losing the throne of the principality of Wallachia, when the Ottoman Empire accused him of treason. The house was an architectural monument. But in 2012, when Kyiv City Council made the decision to sell, deputies were informed that the object no longer had that status.

TD “Eco-Service” is known as a regular supplier to SE “SkhidGZK” (at least 400 million UAH over the past six years) and is no stranger to former deputy director of “SkhidGZK” Ruslan Zhurilo. Recently Zhurilo headed the state enterprise “United Mining and Chemical Company”, which has property rights to Irshansk Mining and Processing and Vilnohirsk Mining and Metallurgical combines, taken from Dmytro Firtash’s group by the state. Earlier Zhurilo was also director of LLC “Instrument Plant “Electron” at a time when the founder of the firm was Olga Huhnina, who represented the interests of “Privat-Stock-Service”. And by heading the new state enterprise he practically confirmed his connection to Ihor Kolomoisky. Because taking the said combines from Dmytro Firtash was achieved thanks to the energy of the Dnipropetrovsk governor.

No.5. Myrymsky-Honcharov club

18,23 million UAH ($630 per sq.m.) – non-residential premises, Peremohy Ave. No.112 area 3616,8 sq.m. Purchase and sale agreement dated 01.08.2011. Buyer – PJSC “Bingo-Entertainment”. The club has a concert hall for 1 500 spectators, offers bar-restaurant services, billiards, striptease and more.

22% of the shares are owned by Viktoriia Myrymska, wife of MP of the 7 convocation Lev Myrymskyi, who was previously a very authoritative businessman in Crimea in the gambling market.

Another 59% belongs to Oleksii Honcharov, known as a business partner of MP of the 7 convocation Oleksandr Yedin. In particular, Honcharov is a minority co-owner and director of LLC “Inter-Contact”, which Yedin controls via the company “Hong Kong Eastern Development Limited.”

No.6. Institute of Beauty

16,92 million UAH ($2055 per sq.m.) – non-residential building, Bohdana Khmelnytskoho St. No.9, letter A, area 1028,9 sq.m. Purchase and sale agreement dated 02.02.2012. Buyer – PJSC “Institute of Beauty”, 84% of whose shares belong to Inna Voloshchenko, the institute’s chief physician.

No.7. A piece of “Slavutych”

13,80 million UAH ($1000 per sq.m.) – non-residential premises on Entuziastiv St. No.1/2, letter A, area 1256,3 sq.m. Purchase and sale agreement dated 04.05.2011. Buyer – LLC “Yotum Ukraine”, registered to the Cypriot company “Pellax Limited”. It is known that this is part of the “Slavutych” hotel, whose total area is 3 772,60 sq.m. The rest of the premises once belonged to JSC “Hotel “Slavutych”, which has been bankrupt since 2012.

No.8. Kontraktovyi Fair

13,78 million UAH. For this sum a share of 26/29 of 51% of LLC “Kyiv International Contract Fair” at Spaska St. 39-a was purchased, building area not specified. Agreement dated 19.12.2011. The 51% package previously belonged to KYIVCITYADMIN. Buyer was Volodymyr Ivanov, the main owner and general director of LLC “Kyiv International Contract Fair”.

No.9. Taruta’s office

Attack of subtenants on Taruta’s office

12,02 million UAH ($3000 per sq.m.) – non-residential building, Yaroslaviv Val No.3, letter B, area 501,2 sq.m. Acquired under a contract 31.01.2013 by the Cypriot company “Volomano Holdings Limited”, registered to the Virgin Islands offshore “Enard Investments Limited.”

The same offshore was a founder of the Cypriot company “DargamoHoldingsLtd”, together with Serhii Taruta. According to the media, on Yaroslaviv Val St., 3 is the headquarters of the “Industrial Union of Donbas”. Recall that in 2011 beneath the building on Yaroslaviv Val, 3 there was a shootout between security guards and persons who tried to seize the office in the interests of the British firm Inmedco Limited, founded by offshores from Belize. That firm claimed it was being prevented from using the premises for which it had a sublease agreement.

No.10. Shopping complex on Poliarna

10,95 million UAH ($660 per sq.m.) – non-residential checkpoint building together with communications, area 2074,6 sq.m. - Poliarna St. No.20, letter R. Buyer – PE “Dosvid”, reorganized into LLC “Dosvid 2002”. Purchase and sale agreement dated 13.12.2012. Previously the founder of PE “Dosvid” alone was Ivan Zaiets, now he owns only 10%, and the main owner is “Vivas Limited” (United Kingdom).

According to the State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate, PE “Dosvid” is reconstructing the premises into a shopping complex for building and household materials. Nearby on Poliarna St., 20-D, one of the hypermarkets of the “Epicenter” chain of MP and former “regional” Oleksandr Hereha and his wife Halyna, who was a secretary of the Kyiv Council and acted as the city’s acting mayor (12 July 2012 - 5 June 2014), is being built.

Iryna Salii, “Nashi Groshi”