A recent Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty investigation suggests that Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko’s ties with real estate developers aren’t in keeping with his promise to wipe out illegal construction projects.
The report focuses on Sunny Riviera, a residential complex on the Dnipro River shore. The project is still under way despite complaints that it is being constructed too close to shore. The deal, moreover, hides a complicated ownership structure leading to friends, business partners and current colleagues of the mayor, according to the report.
Klitschko has denied any involvement in the project or wrongdoing.
Kyiv’s mayor is not alone in engaging in questionable real estate projects, according to RFE/RL, which also alleged that President Petro Poroshenko began building on a plot he owned without obtaining all the necessary permits.
As a result, a nearby UNESCO-protected fortress wall was partially destroyed. A criminal case was opened and construction was suspended in 2013. However, the case was closed in November 2014, five months into Poroshenko’s presidency.
Kyiv prosecutors say they found no criminal violations and Poroshenko has not commented publicly. His spokesman, Svyatoslav Tseholko, could not immediately be reached by the time this edition of the Kyiv Post went to print.
Some critics, however, say that the two examples suggest that non-transparent land and real-estate transactions are still taking place.
“Developers have always comprised the Kyiv economic elite and have always been present in the Kyiv city administration,” Igor Tyshchenko, an urban researcher at the CEDOS think tank, told the Kyiv Post. “This is clear and everyone knows that. This is very bad… Municipal officials should not have business interests in the city.”
Cases in point: Maksym Mykytas, besides being the Kyiv administration deputy from Klitschko’s UDAR party, is also director of Ukrbud, the state developer behind the Sunny Riviera project.
The owner of the land on which Sunny Riviera is being built is Mykhailo Stolar, father of Vadym Stolar, a city councilman and business partner of Klitschko’s close ally and deputy mayor, Ihor Nikonov.
Besides the murky ownership structure, Sunny Riviera is in apparent breach of zoning laws. egulations require that construction must be at least 100 meters from the river’s shore. Sunny Riviera is built only 50 meters away, jutting into one of the few public beaches of Kyiv’s eastern bank.
The territory’s land designation was changed by former Mayor Leonid Chornovetsky in 2007, when numerous outrageous land schemes were taking place. Local anger was heightened when its construction caused cracks in the walls of the nearby Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection.
According to RFE/RL’s investigation, Ukrbud – which has denied any wrongdoing – is engaged in non-transparent activities, fraud in documents, land grabs and ties between land owners and Kyiv’s city administration.
Sunny Rivera has been bogged down in litigation.
An appeals court ruled in the developer’s favor this week regarding the legality of the ownership of the land. But an investigation continues into suspicion of document fraud and non-compliance with court orders.
Nevertheless, Tyshchenko thinks the situation is slowly improving and Kyiv’s administration is becoming more transparent and responsive – at least when it comes to new construction projects.
After the EuroMaidan Revolution that toppled President Viktor Yanukovych, Tyshchenko said that “it is becoming almost impossible to start constructing some unsanctioned building from scratch or develop a territory in some unauthorized, aggressive way like building in a green zone, or ruining cultural or architectural heritage. Any murky scheme becomes public very quickly. Any process like that would trigger conflict and the community will stop it.”
Such was the case with the proposed Le Boulevard shopping mall project in the east bank’s Osokorky district.
The Kyiv administration suspended construction seven months into the project after protests and bloody clashes in May.
Klitschko denied its developer, Sky-Bud, leasing rights and commenced construction of a park on the site instead, saying that business has to take public interest into account.
Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Gordiienko can be reached at [email protected].
