New Metro Station Causes Hike in Real Estate Prices
Published: November 16, 2011 (Issue # 1683)
Landlords have increased prices for premises surrounding Admiralteiskaya metro station, which is due to open by the end of the year at the intersection of Bolshaya Morskaya Ulitsa and Kirpichny Pereulok. The opening of the new station may significantly change the area’s prospects in the near future, experts say.
Sergei Fyodorov, director of business development at Jones Lang Lasalle in St. Petersburg, was quoted by Delovoi Petersburg (DP) daily as saying that when the new station opens, rent rates in the area, which currently range from 4,000 to 5,000 rubles ($130 to $163) per square meter per month, will increase by 15 percent.
Vasily Spitsyn, head of the street-retail department at LBK Union, said that rent had already risen by 30 percent, and a further increase may lead to a complete change of the profile of tenants in the area, DP reported.
Changes among tenants are already taking place in the area. The snack bar chain Kartage did not renew its rental agreement for premises on the first floor of 11 Nevsky Prospekt that it had been renting for the past nine years. Instead, the pie cafe Stolle will be opening in that location soon, Spitsyn said.
The Bukvoyed bookstore chain expects the customer volume at their shop located near the new metro to increase by 15 percent, DP reported.
Analysts expect the number of people passing by the new station to be comparable to that at Mayakovskaya metro station, located on Nevsky Prospekt: Between 2,500 and 3,000 people an hour, excluding rush hour.
The new station, located close to Palace Square, the State Hermitage Museum, the Admiralty and St. Isaac’s Cathedral, is expected to be the last metro station to open in the historic center of St. Petersburg.
A shopping mall will also open above the metro station. The mall is a project of the eminent St. Petersburg businessman Mikhail Mirilashvili.