CORFAC News

St. Petersburg, Russia (January 6, 2013) - Consulting company Bright Rich/CORFAC International was awarded the exclusive marketing assignment and listing for a new commercial business center in St. Petersburg that will be the first newly constructed LEED Gold building in the historic Russian city.

Called Eco Status, the Class A project is being built to qualify for certification by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for the environmental and sustainable features that are being integrated into construction of the new office building, which includes ground-floor retail. The general contractor is Renaissance Construction.

When complete and if the owners certify the building with USGBC, it would be only the sixth LEED certified building in Russia and the second in St. Petersburg. In 2010 a Moscow property was the first to be LEED certified in Russia and an office building in St. Petersburg was renovated to LEED Gold earlier this year. The LEED data was verified by a spokesman with USGBC at its Washington, DC headquarters.

Located in St. Petersburg historic district at Ligovsky Prospect, 140 (off of Ligovsky Avenue) and about 200 meters from the metro station “Obvodny canal,” the eight-story office and retail building totals 6,080 square meters (approximately 65,445 square feet) plus two atrium terraces. Marina Kukharenko, Acting Head of the Department, Foreign Markets, of Bright Rich/CORFAC International won the listing and is marketing space in the building on a lease basis.

The average leasable floor area in the building is 590 square meters (approximately 6,349 square feet) and divisible from 50 square meters (538 square feet) to 300 square meters (3,228 square feet).

Asking rates at Eco Status for the office space are 450-to-560 Russian Rubles per square meter, per year (roughly $13.69 USD to $19.14 USD – 1 Russian Ruble is currently trading around $0.030418, or three USD cents per Ruble). Retail rates range from 675-to-1,125 Russian Rubles, or $23.07 to $38.45 in U.S. dollars. Rents include VAT (value-added tax), OPEX (operating expenses) and utilities (electricity, telephone/Internet) and cleaning according to usage.

The business property is scheduled for completion and ready for occupancy June 20, 2014.

In addition to the sustainability features of the building, the project will have a unique automatic elevator-parking system designed to save time for people working in the building. There is also guest parking at the site. 

“The great location, certified LEED design and high service-level makes this property a very attractive location for major Russian and foreign companies,” said Marina Kukharenko, whose firm is based in St. Petersburg and joined CORFAC International in 2012.

Green building and other special features for the office space include:

• centralized, multi-zone air conditioning chiller-fan coil (CFC)
• variable ventilation system controlled by sensors CO2, which offers substantial savings and filters air pollution
• solar panels, wind turbines, LED lighting, energy-efficient windows that reduce energy costs
• two elevators with capacity of 1125 kg (13-15 people) with energy recovery systems, the elevator produces its own electricity
• water filtration
• in addition to technical innovations, the business center will have exceptional ambiance with two fully landscaped terraces
• for tenant convenience, each floor of the business center has mobile partitions that function like regular walls except that they are movable; the partitions also absorb sound and minimize noise.

The marketing campaign has just begun and yet Ms. Kukharenko reports that she is actively negotiating with several large companies for some of the office space.

About Bright Rich/CORFAC International
Bright Rich/CORFAC International was founded in St. Petersburg in 2008 by a group of private investors. Since 2012, the company is part of CORFAC International (www.corfac.com), uniting professionals in the field of commercial real estate in 65 countries with a total annual volume of transactions of 100 million square meters , or more than $6 billion (in USD). The company provides a wide range of services in consulting and brokerage segments of commercial real estate in St. Petersburg and North-West region. The firm completed several of the Top 10 largest transactions in the region in 2012/2013 that featured industrial, office and retail real estate in St. Petersburg. Some of the largest owners of logistic terminals and major network players recognized Bright Rich/CORFAC International company as “the most effective broker of warehouse and industrial real estate in St. Petersburg" and "The most effective consulting company in the development of a regional network.” More information about Bright Rich is available at: www.brightrich.ru