By Jeremy Page
FIRST there was the millionaires’ supermarket, then the millionaires’ fair. Now an entire town for millionaires is to be built on the outskirts of Moscow.
It will be almost twice the size of Monaco, have a European-style citadel and house up to 30,000 of Russia’s new rich. Construction is due to begin next year on the $3billion (1.7 billion UK Pounds) project.
The centre of Rublyovo-Arkhangelskoye will resemble pre-revolutionary Moscow, with narrow streets and canals clustered around the citadel, according to its British architects, John Thompson and Partners. The more spacious outskirts will look like an upmarket European suburb with townhouses, villas, offices, sports facilities and a marina on the Moscow River.
“Our concept is a city with its own history, not an ordinary village with plots and buildings,” Viktor Novichkov, a director of the project, told The Times. “We are trying to make it in the architectural style of old European cities like Prague, Amsterdam and Munich.”
The 430-hectare (1,060-acre) development, about two miles outside Moscow, will be financed by Nafta Moskva, a company controlled by Suleiman Kerimov, a billionaire businessman and member of the State Duma.
Prices are expected to range from $500,000 for an apartment to several million for a townhouse or villa. Most Russians live on an average monthly income of $244, but the country’s wealthy elite is growing ever richer thanks to an oil-fuelled economic boom.
Moscow alone is now home to 33 billionaires — more than any other city in the world — and about a third of Russia’s estimated 88,000 dollar millionaires. Its outskirts are already dotted with exclusive dacha compounds, once reserved for Communist Party leaders, and newer complexes of European-style housing. But the roads linking them to the centre of Moscow are becoming increasingly congested and the countryside around them often lacks basic infrastructure.
The idea behind Rublyovo-Arkhangelskoye is to create a self-sufficient community that will eventually be granted official town status. The town, which will take up to ten years to complete, will have its own police station, fire department, health centre and schools. One day it may even have its own mayor. Until then it is not clear how the authorities will administer the town.
“It is quite a risky project,” Maria Korobeinikova, senior consultant at Jones Lang LaSalle, a real estate company, said. “The location is great but sales will depend on how quickly the infrastructure is in place.” Another problem is that as a town, rather than a gated community, residents will have no right to stop villagers from the region from wandering in. “It’ll be free to enter,” Mr Novichkov said. “We don’t want it to be a closed camp.”
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<http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1833619,00.html>