Don Stroi to bring Stalin style architecture to luxury apartment market

[mastodon]

Don Stroi to bring Stalin style architecture to luxury apartment market

Howard Gethin / Rupron.com

Moscow's luxury apartment market is to receive a dramatic addition next year when developer Don-Stroi builds a $250 million, 40-story Stalin-Skyscraper style mansion in the city's Sokol district.

The 1000-plus apartment Triumph-Palace building, designed in the style of the capital's famous "Seven Sisters," is already under construction at Chapaevsky Lane near Sokol Metro station.

More than 200 meters high, the building, designed, developed and marketed by Don-Stroi, will include a pool, underground parking for 1,500 vehicles, an internet cafe and bowling alley.

The building will also include eight top-class penthouses, with prices starting at $3000 a square meter, featuring panoramic lifts and large terraces. Don-Stroi claims that the location, with views pleasant parks, will appeal to potential buyers.

The firm, which specializes in residential developments, has already sold the first apartments in the building at around $1,500 a square meter, even though work has only just begun on it. The project is due for completion at the end of 2002.

The existing Stalin Skyscrapers, built just after World War Two, are popular with wealthy residents and command high prices. Don-Stroi claims that prices for apartments in Triumph-Palace will rise as soon as construction is complete.

Some realtors are skeptical about the viability of the project, which will put a large volume of top-end residential properties on the market faster than they can be taken up, even in Moscow's currently buoyant market.


Inspiration for a new high class residential building

"It's too much at one time, in a very expensive building - I don't see how Don-Stroi will ever recoup the money in a reasonable time," said one realtor in Moscow, who requested anonymity.

"Even with the market as it is, they will struggle to recoup this investment in any reasonable time," he added.