European (shopping center)

Historically, on the square of the Kiev railway station on the site of the "European" square was located, which in the 1990s occupied the large wholesale market "Kitezh" ^[1] . Market trading was controlled by organized crime groups . For example, for some time it belonged to Viktor Ryshkov and Yuri Zamorin, the alleged leaders of the Tagansko-Redkinsky organized crime group, who were killed in the early 2000s ^[2] . Moscow Mayor's Office intended to liquidate the market and since 1995 has been looking for an investor for the reconstruction of the territory between Kievsky Station and Berezhkovskaya Embankment . Under the terms of the investment agreement, the investor would have the opportunity to build commercial real estate on parts of the territory, and the city - 50% of the built area. The investor was not found in the expected period until 1997, but subsequently the founders of the Electronic Fair on Riga and co-owners of the Cherkizovsky Market God Nisanov and Zarakh Iliev became interested in the project ^[3] . According to Russian Forbes and the Afisha magazine, their partner was a classmate and friend of Vladimir Putin, Ilham Ragimov ^[4] . In 2002-2003, the shares of investment partnership participants were distributed through the Ploshchad Evropy OJSC, the city's share was reduced from the estimated 50% to 30%, and Nisanova and Ilieva received the Kievskaya Ploshchad 70% (Forbes noted that at the beginning of summer 2002 12% of “Kiev Square” belonged to Zurab Tsereteli , and 88% belonged to a company in which the Moscow City Property Department owned a little less than a quarter) ^{[5] [6]} .

The ensemble of Europe Square and the design of the Evropeisky shopping center were developed by the architect Yuri Platonov , and the design project of the building was prepared by Tsereteli ^[7] . Large-scale construction began in 2002, but only in 2006 came into the view of inspection bodies. In the spring of 2006, the Federal Security Service and the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation expressed concerns about the safety of building a large shopping center over the Kievskaya metro station of the Arbat-Pokrovskaya line , but the prosecutor's office did not answer the ministerial request. Also, the Moscow-Oksk Basin Administration of Rosvodresursy revoked the permits for the work, after the developer unilaterally added the underground parking to the design of the shopping center located in the water protection zone of the Moscow River . The prosecutor’s check confirmed the violation, but this did not affect the progress of the work ^[8] . In the summer of 2006, State Duma deputies Alexander Khinshtein , Sergei Mitrokhin and deputy head of the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources Oleg Mitvol tried to go to the construction site as part of the environmental commission, but the developer’s staff refused to let in inspectors and also used force against Khinshtein. The incident did not have any consequences for the developer. The construction of the "European" was completed in 2006 at the same time as the completion of the improvement of Europe’s area ^{[5] [9] [10]} .

Conflict with City Hall

After the resignation of Yuri Luzhkov and the appointment of Sergei Sobyanin as mayor of Moscow in 2010, Evropeisky was included in the program for the privatization of city property for 2011-2013. In the process of preparing the tenders, it turned out that Nisanov and Iliev actually appropriated the city’s share in the investment project. The investment agreement signed in 2003 provided for the construction of a business commercial center with an area of ​​72 thousand m², in which the city was to receive 21.6 thousand m², however, numerous additions to the original project increased the area of ​​the “European” to almost 180 thousand m². 123.26 thousand m² were directly owned by Kiev Square, 3751 m² belonged to Reverse LLC, and the share of Europe Square was less than expected - 50.23 thousand m². Thus, the city’s share was 16.2 thousand m²: less than 10% of the building and less than the actual area provided for by the investment agreement. The Moscow City Property Department appealed to the Arbitration Court claiming ownership of the “European” property was absent on the grounds that the investor was holding only the acceptance certificate of the constructed building, and the act on the results of the investment project was never signed. The court accepted the claims for consideration, and as a security measure, it prohibited the registration of the transfer of ownership and any transactions with premises within the shares of Europe Square and Kiev Square ^{[11] [12]} . However, during the consideration of the lawsuit, the Property Department became disillusioned with the prospects of the lawsuit and agreed to resolve the dispute out of court by selling its stake in Evropeisky based on the area actually owned by the city. The actual value of the shares was 5.2 billion rubles, but, according to the newspaper Vedomosti , the share was sold at a discount for 2.499 billion ^{[6] [13] [14]} .

In terms of the plan, the “European” building has the shape of a triangle with a beveled angle and occupies a site limited by 2nd Bryansk Lane , Bolshaya Dorogomilovskaya Street and the remaining area of ​​the Kievsky Station Square . The building has 7 aboveground and 2 underground levels, 9 entrance groups and a separate entrance from the Kievskaya station. The main parking lots for 1200 cars are located on the 5th and 6th floors, the additional and service parking spaces are located on the 1st and 7th. The internal organization of the shopping center is built around 5 atriums: the main one, called "Moscow", and the secondary ones - "Paris", "Rome", "London" "And" Berlin ". The floors are connected by stairs, elevators and groups of paired escalators ^[7] . The design of the atriums is made with reference to the architectural styles of European capitals. There are kiosks in the spacious atriums, small architectural forms, artificial plants and benches in the galleries ^{[3] [15] [7]} .

The constructed shopping center has become a traditional object of criticism in the architectural community. He violated the architecture of the square of the Kiev railway station, suppressed the classical building of the station and overcompacted the building. The building took the place of the square, which compositionally complemented the Kiev station and helped to distribute the flows of passengers arriving at the station. From an architectural point of view, the "European" is solved in an abstract way, it was compared with a randomly assembled constructor that did not have clear proportions. The facades of the shopping complex are complemented by numerous details: a tower of glass and metal, massive semicircular glass visors, U-shaped structures for advertising stretch marks on decorative columns. Its location was unsuccessful from the urban point of view and exacerbated the transport situation in the area, causing new traffic jams. According to critics, the “European” is a typical example of the architecture of the Luzhkov period ^{[15] [7]} .

About 63 shops are located on 63 thousand m² of rental area of ​​Evropeisky. On the zero and 1st levels are concentrated small shops of shoes and accessories, furs and jewelry, beauty and health products, a ready-to-wear gallery and anchor tenants - Perekrestok grocery supermarket, household appliances and electronics stores, White Wind " ," Eurodom ". The 2nd floor is occupied by clothing and underwear stores, on the 3rd there are sports and casual clothes, on the 4th there are goods for children, children's clothes and toys. Also on the 3-4 floors there is a cinema of the Formula Kino network, and an amusement park with bowling , ice rink, karaoke, board games and other things is raised to level 7. There are cafeterias and restaurants on all floors, on the 4th there is a food court ^[7] .

Evropeisky is the most visited shopping center in Russia and the second most visited in the world with 140 thousand visitors per day. It is only ahead of the Dubai Mall , located in the United Arab Emirates ^{[4] [3]} .