Photo: Sergey Nikolaev/
Three new buildings of the Nevsky Town Hall will be handed over to the customer with turnkey finishing by the end of summer. This is an important stage in the development of the business district: its life will become even more active. Experts and a resident of the cluster told Fontanka what has changed in a significant part of the center of St. Petersburg with the arrival of a new project and what transformations await it in the near future.
Premium offices with modern “stuffing”
According to Gals-Development Group, the tenant will receive the 4th, 5th and 6th buildings of the Nevsky Town Hall, built in 2022, with turnkey finishing. In total, this is about 80 thousand square meters of commercial real estate of the most prestigious class A+.
Ten—storey buildings have two levels of underground parking – in the conditions of the historical center it is very difficult, and therefore very rare.
The new facilities visually differ from the buildings of the first stage, but harmoniously complement the existing architectural ensemble and significantly expand the boundaries of the business district. The idea of a gallery around the perimeter is preserved in their appearance. There are also common elements with previous buildings: a division into two floors and a single cladding material. The facades are made in a traditional St. Petersburg palette — these are calm natural shades. And the style can be defined as neoclassical, organic for the Northern capital.
Photo: Sergey Nikolaev/
Photo: Sergey Nikolaev/
Photo: Sergey Nikolaev/
Photo: Sergey Nikolaev/
Photo: Sergey Nikolaev/
Photo: Sergey Nikolaev/
“We formulated the general concept at the project stage, but the working documentation was worked out in queues,” one of the authors of the project, architect Evgeny Gerasimov, previously told Fontanka. — There is a reason for this: technology does not stand still. Glass, porcelain stoneware, heating, ventilation, energy, communications — literally all components of the technology are developing, so the filling in the new buildings is already different. Despite the fact that they do not change externally.”
It is worth mentioning the content separately. One and a half years have passed since the commissioning, the individual finishing of the object was carried out. Moreover, the future resident himself was the author of all design solutions, and the developer brought the project to life at his own expense. The entire area of work, including common areas, office spaces and retail, amounted to more than 50 thousand square meters. Given the scale, we can talk about a unique case in the commercial real estate market. One of the largest turnkey facilities in Russia is being transferred to the customer.
What is included in the list of works? According to Fontanka, the matter was not limited to the installation of all engineering systems and the installation of partitions in future offices. The Gals-Development team took over the finishing of the floors with materials corresponding to the status of the object, and equipped all three buildings with high-quality furniture. After the transfer of the buildings, the tenant will only have to arrange computers, connect phones and other office equipment — and you can work.
The high technologies in the project are clearly demonstrated by a special dispatching system — similar to the “Smart House” in high-class residential complexes. The engineering systems of all three buildings are controlled from a single control room. Scenarios designed specifically for the tenant will allow you to regulate the temperature and humidity in the premises, lower the roller blinds on the windows in sunny weather, turn off the lights after the end of the working day and adjust the illumination depending on the time of day, block the water supply in case of accidents and leaks.
The transfer of new buildings to the customer will begin in June. As soon as this process is completed, the Nevsky Town Hall will be filled with thousands of new employees. The business center will live a full life.
Experts interviewed by Fontanka call this cluster special for St. Petersburg. The location, infrastructure, modern equipment — everything is thought out to the smallest detail. This makes the facility one of the best in the office real estate market of the Northern capital. The tenant’s choice of the Nevsky Town Hall can be called far-sighted.
Historical fact
The Nevsky Town Hall is located in the historical area called Sands. Where did one of the oldest corners of the city between the Sinopskaya embankment, Nevsky and Suvorovsky Avenues get such a “resort” name? It reminds us that about six thousand years ago this place was the sandy shore of the ancient Littoral Sea. If you want to see what it looked like, go for a walk in the Sestroretsk Dunes. Here, in the center of St. Petersburg, the sands have long given way to city streets. The only thing that reminds of them is the natural natural color of the facades of the business cluster.
Business Quarter: a resident’s view
One day, architect Yevgeny Gerasimov compared the Nevsky Town Hall with the model of our society: government and business work in a single space. The central building of the quarter is occupied by more than ten committees of the administration of St. Petersburg. One of the neighboring buildings is the headquarters of VTB Bank in the Northern capital. The company’s employees became one of the first “newcomers” of the project.
“I have been working at the Nevsky Town Hall for a little over three years. I remember that I was very impressed when I first entered the office,” says Alexander Vyalkov, manager of VTB’s retail business in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region. “In my opinion, there are only a few such business centers in Russia.”
According to the interlocutor of Fontanka, among the main advantages of the Nevsky Town Hall are thoughtful ergonomics of space, convenient layouts, and a stylish interior. All together, this creates a comfortable working environment.
“I’m talking not only about myself — as the head, I have a spacious office — but also about the employees, and there are only 300 people in our department,” says a resident of the Nevsky Town Hall. — Colleagues work in open space offices with panoramic windows, where there is a lot of light. They don’t sit facing the wall — this is very important. They have comfortable tables and chairs. There are no batteries in the rooms — there is climate control everywhere. Thanks to this, there is something to breathe in summer, and it is warm enough in winter. Office equipment is very conveniently located inside our space: there is no need to run from office to office.”
The bank’s employees also appreciate the household amenities in the office: for example, on each floor there are kitchens with a refrigerator, coffee machine, dishwasher, etc. There is also a private dining room in the VTB office. The staff and visitors of the Nevsky Town Hall also have three cozy cafes of different price categories on site. Here you can have breakfast before work, order sushi delivered to the office, and even take dinner home with you if you don’t want to spend the evening at the stove. And, of course, here you can hold a business meeting or relax a little during the working day.
“I left the building without even putting on warm clothes, had lunch and returned to my place,” says Alexander Vyalkov.
Photo: Sergey Nikolaev/
Photo: Sergey Nikolaev/
Photo: Sergey Nikolaev/
Photo: Sergey Nikolaev/
Photo: Sergey Nikolaev/
Photo: Sergey Nikolaev/
Photo: Sergey Nikolaev/
Photo: Roman Kitashov/
And in summer, the mood of residents is lifted by a cascading fountain with lighting. By the way, newlyweds like to take pictures near him. Nevsky Town Hall has long been a fashionable place for wedding filming, and girls in white wedding dresses no longer surprise office staff.
Residents of the Nevsky Town Hall, with whom Fontanka spoke, said that they dream of a fitness club on the territory of the cluster. It is quite possible that their aspirations will come true with the settlement of the buildings of the second stage. The final filling of commercial premises on the ground floors will be determined by the tenant, but one more cafe, dry cleaning, a store and a bank are on the list of planned ones at the moment.
Historical fact
Before the revolution, the Peskov district, thanks to its convenient location, became one of the largest business centers in St. Petersburg. Important goods for the big city, such as grain, were delivered here along the Neva River. There was a giant grain base on the riverbank, which provided not only the internal needs of the city, but also exports to European countries. There was also a washing yard, where the customs duty was processed and collected. Therefore, the appearance of the administrative and public business district is a story about returning to the essence of this territory, only in a modern format.
Panorama of the sands Photo: pastvu.com
Apartment building Schmidtafoto: pastvu.com
I. G. Gruzinsky’s mansion and grain barns on Sinopskaya Embankment Photo: pastvu.com
Commercial warehouses on Sinopskaya Embankment Photo: pastvu.com
Apartment building Sucks Photo: pastvu.com
How to color the “grey belt”
One of the laws of urbanism says: for a location to come to life, it needs to be given a new function. Fifteen years ago, on the site of the Nevsky Town Hall administrative and business district, there was a “gray belt” with a fading industry surrounded by residential buildings and individual historical monuments. Even the presence of authorities — Smolny and the administration of the Leningrad region — and diplomatic departments did not seriously change the situation: this corner on the outskirts of the center seemed to remain aloof from active life.
The decision of the government of St. Petersburg to build an administrative and public business district in Peski turned out to be correct. The cluster has become a driver for the development of these places. Thanks to a large development project, new residential buildings began to be built nearby, restaurants, public spaces, and medical centers opened.
Photo: Roman Kitashov/
Photo: Roman Kitashov/
Photo: Roman Kitashov/
Photo: Roman Kitashov/
Photo: Roman Kitashov/
Photo: Roman Kitashov/
Photo: Roman Kitashov/
Photo: Roman Kitashov/
Perhaps the changes are most clearly visible in the housing market, experts say.
“This territory is a quiet, cozy suburb of the Central District. Once it was mainly occupied by industrial enterprises and warehouses, there is also an “old fund”, says Olga Trosheva, director of the St. Petersburg Real Estate Consulting Center (Setl Group). — Subsequently, new facilities began to be built here. The developers classified them as “elite” due to the proximity of traditionally premium places such as the Tavrichesky Garden and Smolny, as well as due to the beginning of construction of the Nevsky Town Hall, which increased the prestige of this area. Now most of the projects are almost completed, and apartments are mostly on sale only on the secondary market. They are expensive, but they are in high demand.”
Olga Trosheva noted that during the construction of two clubhouses next to the business district, the developer SetlGroup noted the high interest of buyers in the facilities and their location.
Ksenia Fedorova, a consulting analyst at the NF Group Consulting and Analytics Department, agrees with her colleague’s opinion.:
“The area bounded by Sinopskaya Embankment, Tula Street, Suvorovsky and Nevsky Avenues has been developing dynamically in recent years,” she notes. — The construction of the Nevsky Town Hall business district, the launch of the first stage of which took place in 2013, has indeed become one of the drivers of its development. Over the past 10 years, nine residential complexes with a total of 915 apartments have been built here, and another one is currently under construction. As of March 2024, the average price per square meter in a new building is 399 thousand rubles (with an average price of 252 thousand per square meter in the Central District at the time of publication — ed.).
Ksenia Fedorova considers the redevelopment of industrial zones to be a further point of growth of the territory. As it takes place, we can expect a further increase in the prestige of the location and, as a result, an increase in the class of projects implemented here.
Photo: Roman Kitashov/
Photo: Roman Kitashov/
Photo: Roman Kitashov/
Photo: Roman Kitashov/
Photo: Roman Kitashov/
Photo: Roman Kitashov/
Historical fact
Even before the revolution, apartment buildings and estates of the country’s richest merchants began to appear in the Sands next to the “logistics hub”. With beautiful front doors, luxurious finishes, with advanced technologies of its time, with facades in the spirit of the St. Petersburg facade palette. The status apartments were designed to emphasize the influence of the owners. But after the revolution, they turned into communal apartments, and the Sands became an ordinary area with ordinary residential buildings and industries. Before our eyes, the “pendulum of history” has swung in the other direction: the territory is experiencing a renaissance.
And what about transport accessibility?
Alexander Vyalkov goes to the office by private car: the journey from the area of the New Village takes 40 minutes. By the summer, when the Chernyshevskaya metro station will be opened after reconstruction, he plans to use the subway.
“In general, the location of the Nevsky Town Hall is quite convenient,” the interlocutor of Fontanka believes. — I have to move around the city a lot — client meetings, meetings, events — and even to the farthest location the journey takes no more than 35 minutes, unless it is the Leningrad region, of course. There are good interchanges nearby, Bolsheokhtinsky Bridge: once and you are already on Okhta.”
In the future, a subway will be opened next to the business district. According to the latest information in the press, the Suvorovskaya-1 station of the new Kalininsko-Krasnoselskaya line is planned to be built by 2028. Its lobby will be located at the intersection of Kirochnaya and Novgorodskaya Streets — it is about 200 m from the borders of the Nevsky Town Hall. In the meantime, shuttle buses run for office employees from the nearest operating stations “Ploshchad Vosstaniya” and “Alexander Nevsky Square”. The travel time is about 5 minutes.
Among the residents of the business cluster there are also those who prefer to use bicycles and “last mile” transport — scooters. There is a private parking on site for these vehicles.
The quarter is also equipped with high—speed Schneider Electric chargers for electric vehicles: two of them are on site, three are in the parking lot.
What’s next
The coming years promise to be dynamic for the area next to the business cluster. In addition to Suvorovskaya-1, the long-term metro development plan includes the Suvorovskaya-2 station on the Admiralteysko-Okhtinskaya line. That is, the city will receive an interchange hub with direct communication with such corners of the St. Petersburg agglomeration as Kanonersky Island, Yanino, Polyustrovo, Peterhof highway, etc.
In addition, the General Plan of St. Petersburg provides for (and confirmed by the city government) several new crossings across the Neva River. Two of them are located in close proximity to the Sands: the Arsenalny Bridge in the alignment of Arsenalnaya Street and the Sredneokhtinsky tunnel from Orlovskaya Street to the Neva Garden. The capacity of the latter is estimated at 60 thousand cars per day. The tunnel will significantly improve the transport connection between the center and the east of the city.
The Arsenalny Bridge will become part of the M-7 expressway. An agreement on the intention to build it has already been signed with the investor. The highway will increase the accessibility of the northern districts: it will be possible to get from the Nevsky Town Hall to the Vyborg highway in some 10 minutes.
The active development of transport infrastructure, the ongoing redevelopment of the “gray zone” and the rapid development of the Nevsky Town Hall business district are three components that make the Peskov district one of the most promising in the center of St. Petersburg. A new point of attraction is developing before our eyes, containing both history and the future.
The Nevsky Town Hall itself continues to be updated. Buildings 8 and 9, belonging to the third stage, are in a high stage of readiness. The developer will complete construction and installation work in buildings and landscaping nearby by the end of 2024. Commissioning is scheduled for February 2025.
Photo: Sergey Nikolaev/
There are also plans to build a detached hotel. A hotel is necessary on the territory of the business district, it is an important part of a comfortable environment for residents. The hotel will be ready in 2027, including finishing and furnishing. This will be the end of the project.
JSC “M”, TIN: 7806144593, erid: 2SDnjcVSE8H
Photo: Sergey Nikolaev/
Photo: Sergey Nikolaev/
Источник: www.fontanka.ru
English 
Russian 
German 
Polish