Kiev. Ukraine. Ukraine Gate – December 28, 2020 – Business
Developer Vagif Aliyev ranks 22nd in the ranking of the richest Ukrainians according to NV and Dragon Capital. His fortune for the year fell by 16% and is estimated at $ 323 million.
Covid-19 and spring lockdown did not have the best effect on the commercial real estate market. In January-October, one of the largest shopping malls in Kyiv, Lavina Mall, suffered a loss of UAH 248 million, according to a report by Lavina Shopping and Entertainment Center (which manages the shopping center of the same name) to the National Commission on Securities and Stock Market. For eight months of last year, the shopping center earned a profit of 116 million UAH.
Lavina Mall is one of the largest shopping centers in Kyiv for developer Vagif Aliyev. For the past few years, Vagif Aliyev has been investing in the construction of shopping malls. But this was not always the case. In the late 1980s, he owned a network of 500 kiosks selling soda water in his native Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan. And in the 1990s, already in Ukraine, he – within the framework of the Republic Corporation – was engaged in barter supplies of Turkmen gas together with Igor Nikonov, Vladimir Krapivin and Igor Bakay. This business brought in up to $ 500 million a year. But it was not easy, previously wrote the magazine NV.
The republic and its director general Bakai are legendary concepts in Ukraine: the latter became a favorite of President Leonid Kuchma, headed Naftogaz, sat in the chair of the State Administration of Justice and fled the country after the Orange Revolution, fearing corruption investigations. In the fall of 2017, Igor Bakay was arrested in Moscow.
Krapivin, Aliyev and Nikonov have their own history – they created the development company KAN. Her name is an abbreviation of the first letters of the names of partners.
Aliyev’s first project in Kyiv, which he carried out in 2003, was the premium Mandarin Plaza shopping center in Bessarabka and the Dominant business center located in the annex.
Now the businessman owns the Mandarin Plaza shopping center, the Parus business center and the Lavina Mall, which opened in 2016, as well as part of the BlockBuster Mall. The latter is managed by the majority owner Oleksandr Spektor. Aliyev continues to buy land for new projects. For example, he became the owner of a plot of land under the market in the area of st.m. Pochayna, formerly owned by Mykhailo Tabachnyk, the brother of former Deputy Prime Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk. In addition, he buys land in the area of Grigorenko Avenue in Darnytskyi district. In total, Aliyev plans to build eight more major shopping centers in Kyiv. One in each district of the city.
In late November, Aliyev will open the first of this superseries – Blockbuster Mall on Bandera Avenue for 350 thousand square meters. His company is also completing Ocean Mall (300 thousand square meters) and began construction of two more malls – Lesnaya Mall (300 thousand square meters) and Hippodrome Mall (450 thousand square meters).
“I have been preparing for this for 25 years,” Aliyev told NV. And he explained that he had been buying land in Kyiv for ten years in a row, and no one in the capital had such good plots as his. “Now I can implement my strategy,” he said.
