New concept of Minsk City presented

Minsk-City, a tremendious office area which Belarusian government would like to see as an international financial centre has a long strory of planning, redesign and conflicts with investors. Initially it was supposed to be built in 2009 but world financial crisis made Itera, a Russian investor, to abandon the project. Now it looks Belarus itself will develop this area.

Concept of Minsk-City

Architects of the engineering research enterprise Minskgrado has worked out a final concept of the area coverage of the downtown Minsk-City.  The enterprise director Leonid Dobysh has informed TUT.BY.

According to him, the conditions of the competition, the results of which will determine the investor for the implementation of this conception, are currently being developed. At the same time a detailed plan, that will determine the building regulations, is being worked out. The Director of Minskgrado has underlined that "the investor must rigidly adhere to the concept of building."

It should be noted, that last year an international competition for the best architectural concept of the site development was held. However, nobody won. As it stated in the final report of the competition committee, "none of the submitted projects has a complex of urban planning ideas that could be fully implemented. Therefore it was decided not to award the first place and not to provide investors with preferential advantages in the competition”. "We took some details of those concepts and included them into the final project," Leonid Dobysh said.

Plan of Minsk City

As it stated in the concept explanatory note, one of the most important principles of the project is to preserve the key features of the building area:  green space, the direction of the runway, the terminal building, the hangars of the Aircraft Repair Plant № 407, dwelling houses as well as to refresh the landscape along the southern and south- eastern line of Minsk-City.

According to the explanatory note, the main idea of the concept is to preserve the direction of the runway in order to remind of the aircraft past of this territory and to enrich it with a beautiful landscape and parks.

An international financial center (IFC) is to be created in the central part of Minsk-City. Four 30-45 storey office buildings and a high-rise hotel complex are planned to be developed. The total area of the financial center can be about 300 thousand square meters.

View of the IFC

The long boulevard created on the remained runway was formed from multifunctional complexes with the total area of 80 thousand square meters (accommodation - offices - trade - catering), which will give visitors of the area availability and variability in the choice of services. 1.6-kilometer boulevard alternate with theme sites.

Educational and exhibition centers are proposed to be created close to the financial center on the basis of two hangars, one of which was brought from Germany after World War II.

A large shopping and entertainment center with a total area of 130 thousand square meters is planned to be built along the 3rd Ring Road Street from the Aerodromnaya Street.

View of the shopping street

A sport complex with the total area of 65 thousand square meters is proposed to be built nearby.

The great part of Minsk-City will consist of residential neighborhoods, represented by 4 -7 storey residential buildings. The total area of this residential development will make up 1.27 million square meters, including the economy class houses - 670 thousand square meters. In addition, it is proposed to provide 100 plots of land for the building of cottages.

The building plan involves the immediate development of the area along the Kizhevatova Street, which is supplied with engineering networks and requires no additional demolition and redevelopment after the airport closing. The planning structure of residential areas stays the same for the entire territory. According to the explanatory note, other functional areas of the business center "Minsk-City" can be flexible regarding zoning as well as functional purposes.

It will be recalled that recently Alexander Lukashenko expressed his dissatisfaction with the slow pace of the project implementation and demanded to brisk up the work. "I am surprised by the approach of [Prime Minister Mikhail] Myasnikovich and [Minsk Mayor Nikolai] Ladutko . We all agreed on "Minsk-City". Why weren’t any suggestions made?” the head of the state said. “You should honestly and objectively make proposals. Do you think that this 300 hectares plot of land will not be controlled, as it should be, on the straight dealing? The one who will offer the best conditions must develop the territory. Stop wasting time!"

Minsk-City is a multifunctional complex, which is to be built on the territory of more than 300 hectares in the central part of Minsk. The project involves the removal of Airport Minsk- 1 and the Aircraft Repair plant. In the summer of 2012 Belarus terminated the investment agreement with the affiliate of Russian “Itera" on the construction of the business center Minsk-City. Lukashenko was dissatisfied with the project implementation pace. At the same time Belarusian authorities have announced that they are searching for a new investor for Minsk-City and planning an international competition. At that time the estimated cost of the project was $5 billion.

TUT.BY