Apollo of Petrograd

The A-class Apollo business center on Dobrolyubov Prospekt, which opened in July this year, is already 90% filled with occupants. The commercial real estate market experts are almost unanimous that this is one of the most successful and promising properties on the Petersburg office real estate market. The public company Construction Corporation Vozrozhdenie Sankt-Peterburga (Revival of St. Petersburg) integrated with LSR Group is the project developer and investor. LSR handed over the property management to its subsidiary A + Estate, which tackled the BC operation and office space brokerage.

Hi-tech in Central Petersburg

In June 2007 Apollo was honored with the Commercial Real Estate Awards-2007 as the best class A business center in St. Petersburg. According to Boris Yushenkov, CEO Colliers International SPb and one of the jurors, the success of this project is determined by the advantageous location and extraordinary architectural solution. A splendid view of Peter and Paul Fortress, the spit of Vasilyevsky Island and Prince Vladimir Cathedral opens up from the windows of the upper stories. It takes only five minutes to walk to the nearest subway station Sportivnaya.

The complex is a variable height building (7-8 stories) rigged with a central air-conditioning system; passenger lifts AXEL, a dedicated Internet line, security and access control systems.

The office center has a parking area below grade with 22 car spaces. Furthermore reconstruction of the road junction yielded space for the arrangement of guest parking with 35 car spaces. A cafeteria was also opened for the occupants.

The BC designers are positive that the building may become a new object of note in the Petrograd side, thanks to “a futuristic look of the illumined glass ellipse created at the top floor.” Apollo’s architecture is devised by the specialists of Interkolomnium led by Evgeny Podgornov. The architects were faced with the challenge to create an ultramodern complex that will sell well on the market and go down well with the surrounding development. The building proportions fit perfectly into the architectural context; yet the complex stands out among the adjacent buildings, owing to its geometry and up-to-date materials: metal, glass and polished stone.

Natural stone coupled with the systems of attached and “warm” facades enabled to enlarge the usable space and to provide effective thermal insulation of the walls. The method of diamond drilling was used during the construction works. The glazed facades allow maximum daylight penetration. The building is also outfitted with special lighting for the nighttime. Drywalls, mobile partitions, stained-glass windows and suspended ceilings are used in the organization and decoration of the interior space along with raised floors, which enable to lead out the service lines at any part of the office.

Business Center in Place of Housing

The original project concept underwent a number of significant changes in the course of its implementation. Originally a residential development was planned at the site of BC Apollo. “A small rundown building, which did not pose any special architectural value, occupied this site,” recounts Dmitry Khodkevich, construction director at the public corporation Vozrozhdenie Sankt-Peterburga. “We bought this property and first intended to build an apartment house but, having figured the insolation, changed our mind and decided to erect a business center. The architect’s mission was to make a light building, contrasting with the adjacent houses and well seen from the perspective.”

The new business center was designed on the premise that there will be a central ellipsoid part and office units will be sold by floors. But later it was decided not to sell the property, because the new commercial real estate division was established within the LSR Group, whose strategic goal was class A property management.

To provide the new property with power and heating supply, the builders had to reconstruct an old boiler house in the neighboring yard and lay a new line, which also serves the nearest houses. “Owing to the Apollo project, the neighboring houses are provided with heating and electricity. Incidentally, the Petersburg Zoo will also get the requisite amount of electric power, thanks to the new lines we laid,” says Mr. Khodkevich. “In addition, we improved the neighboring property and the intersection where our business center sits.”

In the Heart of Business District

The Petrograd side, where BC Apollo lies, is a rapidly developing center of business, retail and community activity in the city on Neva. At the present moment this district ranks third (next to Central and Admiralty districts) in terms of saturation with business centers. Because the Petrograd side is located near to the embankment, it has better accessible for transport than the center. It is rather easy to get both to the center, Vasilyevsky Island and northern districts from here.

A number of high-end business centers are being currently constructed on the Petrograd side. Among them is BC Veda House at 20 Petrogradskaya Quay developed by Veda Sistema and positioned as a class A business complex, the class B+ BC Avenue developed by Best’. Commercial Real Estate at 7 Aptekarskaya Quay. Among the recently delivered properties is the class A business center Langenzipen at 9 Kamennoostrovsky prospekt developed by Teorema.

The Petrograd side has fair chances to turn into the city’s business center with time. Early in September this year LSR Group divulged its plan to create an entire business district in Petrograd and expand its project of the business quarter Electric City at 10 Medikov prospekt at the site of the Electric plant by 2011. The 340,000-sqm complex will be managed by A + Estate. This territory will presumably become the priciest in the city. As noted by managing director of LSR Group, Georgy Bogachev, the business quarter is based on “the city for business” principle. In addition to office premises, Electric City will feature shops, a fitness club, restaurants and cafes, a bank and a kindergarten, archives and warehouses, a conference center, a four-star 200-room hotel and even a clinic.

“BC Apollo is notable for a very fortunate location,” concludes Anna Derkach, CEO of Praktis. Upravlenie i Ekspluatatsia. “The building lies not far from Sportivnaya subway station and boasts excellent performance. Our company is part of the Setl Group holding, which will soon start construction on a class A business center in this area. It shouldn’t be forgotten that realization of Naberezhnaya Evropy project will soon commence here. Most likely an entire business district will rise soon”

Merits Outweigh Demerits

Most office centers, opening on the Petrograd side, are redevelopments of the already existing buildings. The density of development and construction limitations imposed by the adjacent architectural monuments virtually bring to naught the probability of new construction projects. Another blight of central St. Petersburg is worn-out engineering networks, most of them at the breaking point, in addition to heating and electricity limits, scanty development land and intricate outlines of available plots. Whenever some structures are to be conserved on a site, construction turns into a real ordeal.

BC Apollo is a new building, which is one of the project’s main competitive advantages. Constructing from scratch allowed the employer to erect an office building with open floor plans and to make the most efficient use of the office space. As noted by Polina Makarenko, spearheading the office realty department at Knight Frank Saint Petersburg, among the main advantages of BC Apollo is that this is one of the few newly built construction projects on the Petrograd side. “The BC premises have open floor plans, which are the main requirement of contemporary tenants,” she reasons. “Underground and above-ground parking areas are fortunately married within one project. The modern and salient design is also noteworthy. Such projects are very rare in central Petersburg.”

Aleksey Chizhov, helming the office realty department at Becar Commercial Property SPb, mentions another advantage of Apollo: “Separate entrances for different offices at the first floor improve the consumer characteristics of these premises for tenants. The building was built using state-of-the-art materials and technologies, outfitted with complete engineering infrastructure and conforms to the declared class A,” Mr. Chizhov believes.

However Apollo still has some shortcomings, typical of most such projects delivered in central areas. “The parking space problem, albeit not so acute as in the very heart of the city, still cripples the operations of BC Apollo, as there are not enough parking space,” opines Vadim Demeshenkov, spearheading the office real estate department at Best’. Commercial Real Estate. “Yet the BC designers ‘squeezed out’ everything they could in this case, given Apollo’s location.”

“BC Apollo approximately has 1 car space per 110 sqm of office space including the above-ground and underground car parks, which is acceptable in the historical core of the city,” believes Mr. Chizhov. “This is generally in line with the classification requirements.”

In addition to cramped parking, the market experts also point to another shortcoming. “Only the upper-floor offices in this business center offer splendid views of the Neva water body and architectural monuments,” says Vadim Demeshenkov. “The views from other windows are not so impressive. The office occupants mainly see the walls of adjacent buildings. This drawback does not detract from the professionalism of the design team, as this can be ascribed to the site specific location.” Information from open sources and expert opinion lead to the conclusion that BC Apollo is a rather promising property and will be in demand on the market. The level of rental rates agrees with the average base rent for class A business centers in St. Petersburg. The occupancy will most likely approach 100% in the nearest time. According to Mr. Khodkevich, they artificially retain a certain share of vacant space in the center to grant the current tenants a fair chance to enlarge their office space if need be. The landlord does not plan to sell the property.