Over 100 hectares
A spokesperson for
both Russian billionaires has confirmed the deal in The Moscow Times, but
refused to state a figure. Lotus City will be Moscow’s
largest real estate project by far, dwarfing the Vegas shopping centre in southern Moscow (400,000 sqm) and
the MEGA shopping centre in Belaya Dacha (300,000 sqm).
The first phase of this shopping
centre, located in a huge complex near the Kaluga highway at the south-east
of the Russian capital, already takes up200,000 sqm. The project
should not only house stores, but also a
place to live, a business centre and a location for a luxury hotel.
Not a blank slate
Forbes lists Iliyev and Nisanov among the richest forty Russians, estimating their are worth 3 billion dollars each (some 2.2 billion
euro). They own the Radisson Royal Ukraine Hotel, the Radisson SAS
Slavyanskaya Hotel in Moscow and the Yevropeisky shopping centre in
Moscow.
The business duo is not a blank slate: they used to control the Cherkizovsky market in Moscow,
which had to be closed in 2009 because of counterfeit and immigration
violations. The duo also owns the Sadovod market, raided
last fall because of potentially illegal workers, according to The Moscow Times.
(Translated by Gary Peeters)
