Editors Note: On July 9, 2010, the Kyiv Post published ‘Ghost Town,’ a cover story (image at top right) that examined the capital’s raft of vacant and decaying buildings – many considered architectural monuments – in the heart of the city. This story revisits the issue, finding that little progress has been made in converting empty buildings to productive uses. President Viktor Yanukovych earlier this month, in a proposal to improve the situation, called for substantial property taxes to stimulate real-estate transactions and discourage owners from holding on to decaying properties.
Ghosts are the only things living in some of Kyiv’s wonderful, ancient mansions. Dozens of such buildings stand abandoned along the capital’s central streets.
“These buildings are just stolen. Simply stolen,” says Mykola Zhukov, an activist and chairman of a grassroots organization campaigning for preservation of some of the old mansions.
Kyiv’s massive problem with empty and decaying buildings is rooted in a combination of greedy owners, bad city planning and the lack of a substantial property tax. Developers prefer new and cheaper construction on the outskirts of the city or on green spaces, rather than expensive and laborious historical renovation.
The lack of significant property taxes makes it easier for building owners to let properties sit empty for years, speculating that their value will rise because of the central location or rising land prices.
Moreover, private owners aren’t the only problem. Government owns many of the derelict buildings and privatizations have been marred by endemic corruption and non-transparency.
Change, however, is stirring.
President Viktor Yanukovych noted the problem during the July holiday for tax professionals and called for property taxes to be substantial as incentives for owners to sell or fix their properties. “This symbolic tax should turn into a major source for pumping up local budgets and a tool to limit speculation in real estate,” Yanukovych said.
The government’s main department of cultural heritage says there are 48 buildings under its watch that are in ruin or in wrecked condition.
However, tax experts say that the property tax that took effect on July 1 would assess the owner of an average-sized apartment — some 50 square meters — only Hr 550 (about $70 a year) in property taxes. The owner of a 500-square meter apartment — a high-end rarity — would pay Hr 15,000 a year, or $1,875, based on a two-tier progressive rate in place per square meters.
But it remains uncertain how effectively government will collect a tax that’s never been paid before. And the low tax is unlikely to be enough to achieve Yanukovych’s aims.
For preservationists, two buildings of great concern are located in the courtyard of Pushkinska Street, only a block from the city’s main street of Khreshchatyk.
The building addresses are 35 and 37. They were built by a wealthy trader, Friedrich Michelson, for his two daughters more than 100 years ago. Historical accounts suggest that the interior of those mansions was comparable to the Hermitage, the lavish Russian museum in St. Petersburg. A family coat of arms decorates the facades of both addresses, built for Michelson, a 19th century Kyiv city council member who lived from 1840 to 1908.
The houses were apparently looted during the perestroika years, the dying days of the Soviet Union, and have been standing idle and decaying ever since – despite their status as protected architectural monuments.
Activists claim that several years ago both mansions were rented through a controversial scheme, and then privatized by a company called D.I.B., which activists suspect is a shell front for unknown individuals who want to eventually destroy the buildings and construct something else.
If so, the owners are close to achieving their aim. The roofs have collapsed on both structures, the windows are broken and it is clear that both properties have been abandoned for decades.
Local residents from surrounding buildings challenged the deal in court, but the litigation has been kicked around for five years. One positive sign to come out of court so far is a judicial order declaring all agreements with D.I.B.company invalid and classifying any commercial deals with the properties as illegal.
“No one in the city administration cares about taking the houses back,” says Zhukov. “There isn’t even a need to pay any compensation since no work was conducted there.”
Also, after pressure from preservationists, D.I.B. company apparently transferred ownership, but to another suspect private entity.
The city’s Main Department for Protection of Cultural Heritage said that ownership of the two buildings has switched from D.I.B. company to LLC House on Pushkinska in November 2010. The structures “are protected under an agreement between the city and the private owner of the building,” officials said in a response to a Kyiv Post inquiry.
However, the new owner seems to be not much more interested than the previous one in doing something productive with the buildings.
Moreover, it’s not clear who is behind LLC House on Pushkinska. A woman who answers the phone of LLC House on Pushkinska says that she can’t answer any questions and instead passes on the number of Stolytsya real estate agency, whose employees said they had no information on LLC House on Pushkinska.
City authorities say the owner is obliged to reconstruct the buildings. But activists fear that they might be demolished instead.
“The buildings are being deliberately allowed to ruin,” says Oleksandr Bryhynets, a Kyiv city council member and head of its committee on culture and tourism. “We [assume] that there is a big commercial project planned, covered up by the authorities’ passive agreement,” Bryhynets, an opposition deputy, said.
Bryhynets says he sees little progress. “These beautiful houses are being ruined, just because it is hard to handle the judicial aspects and overcome the bureaucracy machine,” he says.
For instance, the historical building on 4 Tarasovoyi Sreet was demolished this winter, after an arson fire the summer before.
The Michelson mansions are far from unique. The Murashko mansions, on 12-A, 12-B, 14, 14-A, 14-B Mala Zhytomyrska Street have a similar story.
They were built for the family of the famous Ukrainian artist Oleksandr Murashko in the early 20th century. The private owners of the building have already attempted to knock it down since acquiring it in 2007.
Oleksandr Glukhov, a pensioner and next-door resident, the building needs protection from bad weather. The roof leaks when it rains, prompting Glukhov to scoop the water out of the attic to save his home.
“There is a big hole in the roof. A lot needs to be done to save these buildings, and they decay very fast,” he says sadly.
Glukhov says he has written hundreds of letters and made hundreds of visits to city officials to make his case. Finally, his effort paid off as a prosecutor general successfully challenged the privatization of the building, winning a court order for its cancellation last October.
But Bryhynets warns that it’s too early to celebrate as the paperwork still needs to be finished to return the property to the public. “But no one wants to do that,” he says. The Main Department of Cultural Heritage said the city council is obliged to take the building back. But so far, it has not happened.
Mykola Marusyk, a chairman and young activist of Art Platform civic movement, says that private ownership of the building can and should be good for it, citing Radisson Blu hotel in Kyiv as a good example.
“The company reconstructed an old architectural complex on Yaroslaviv Val and now it looks perfect in the city ensemble and makes the hotel more attractive for tourists,” he explains.
He hopes that the same fate awaits the building on 4-B Hrushevsky Street. His organization is trying to save the building from being demolished and replaced by a multi-story business center.
“Our main goal is to create a precedent of saving the old city by ourselves, without the help of our passive authorities,” Marusyk says. “We want to show Kyivans that they can protect their city themselves.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at [email protected].
