New Holland Project Seeks New Deadline of 2012
By Yevgeny Rozhkov
Special to The St. Petersburg Times
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Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Gregory Ingleright (r) shows William Elliott (l) and David Lewis (c) around the New Holland redevelopment site on Saturday.
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New Holland, a triangular artificial island and former closed military facility that is being redeveloped as a multifunctional center, was revealed at the weekend to a delegation of VIPs, including David Lewis, Lord Mayor of the City of London, and William Elliott, British Consul General in St. Petersburg. “We feel that the guests from Great Britain want to share the atmosphere of being part of this project, which is being realized by the British architect Lord Norman Foster,” said Tatiana Protasova, executive assistant to the senior project manager. Founded by a decree of Peter the Great in 1721, New Holland, which has an area of over 7.6 hectares, was used for drying timber used in shipbuilding during the 18th and 19th centuries, and in 2004 was turned over to the city of St. Petersburg by the Russian Defense Ministry. The results of a subsequent tender to develop the island were announced in 2006, with ST New Holland LLC, now part of the Russian Land Implenia joint venture in real estate development, emerging victorious with a project designed by Lord Norman Foster. Foster’s studio, Foster and Partners, is responsible for some of the world’s most iconic new buildings, including the Swiss Re headquarters in London (affectionately known as the “gherkin”), the new German Reichstag in Berlin, the Great Court for the British Museum, HSBC headquarters in Hong Kong and London, Commerzbank Headquarters in Frankfurt and the Bilbao metro system. The New Holland project envisages the regeneration of the entire island, including the renovation of the island’s 18th- and 19th-century buildings, which will be preserved and adapted for modern use, as well as the construction of exciting new structures. The multifunctional center will include cultural and exhibition facilities, luxury hotels, offices, serviced apartments, underground parking, retail outlets and entertainment areas. The architect’s plans envisage three separate entrances to the island and several underground car parks providing 1,000 spaces. “The heart of the project — the brand new Palace of Festivals — is designed to combine a 2,000-seat concert hall with art galleries and exhibition areas. It will be a spacious multifunctional structure with an amphitheater incorporating the island’s internal lake and seating up to 3,000 guests; a floating stage will be available in the summertime, while during the winter months the lake will be transformed into an ice skating rink,” said Gregory Ingleright, consultant for the New Holland project, who led the guests’ tour on Saturday. The British architect’s winning proposal was part of a bid by ST Novaya Gollandiya, which promised to invest $319 million into the project and complete construction by 2010. Ingleright said that investment was now expected to reach $800 million, due to the high costs of carrying out underground construction, along with other factors such as inflation and the falling dollar. Shalva Chigirinsky, the Moscow-based developer behind ST Novaya Gollandiya, said the company would finance 30 percent of the project’s costs, with the rest to be borrowed from various sources, Interfax reported. Details of the project have yet to be defined more accurately, Chigirinsky said last year. Two other companies, NHI Group and Stroi Holding, competed for the high-profile contract. Commercial exploitation of the island could provide an annual turnover of up to $100 million to the managing company, while the payback period after the project’s completion will be six to seven years, according to estimates by experts. The new buildings of the New Holland project have been designed with functional flexibility in mind. Five new bridges will unite the island with the surrounding neighborhood, and together with two existing bridges and two canals linking the island’s internal lake to its water boundaries, will accomplish the project’s main goal: the integration of New Holland into the city after nearly three centuries as a closed military facility. “The site is unique. Located in the heart of St. Petersburg, New Holland is within walking distance of the Hermitage and Nevsky Prospekt,” said Viktor Afonin, deputy director of City Hall’s Agency for Strategic Investments. Use of the latest materials and technologies make this an ecologically sound and “intelligent” project. For example, the design of the engineering systems allows operational modes to be varied in winter and summer, enabling power saving and the optimization of operating expenses. The complexity of geological and hydrological explorations and the condition of the power network and other infrastructure, along with the need to reinforce the building’s foundations, has caused the deadline for the completion of the project to be reviewed. Last week the company made an offial request to extend the deadline to 2012. George Yazikov, head of City Hall’s Committee for Investments and Strategic Projects, said “We have to treat the historic buildings with care, and any acceleration in renovation may damage the island’s infrastructure,” said Yazikov.
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