Self-construction for 10 billion?

The history of the construction business of Kamchatka billionaire Igor Redkin is acquiring new scandalous details. Following the residential complex “Olympus” – “innovative” high-rise buildings for a earthquake-prone region, which Version wrote about, it became known about other dubious projects of the developer-fish industry. The signature seems to be the same: familiar relations with the law with the obvious connivance of local officials. Doesn’t anyone care about the cost of the issue—the safety and interests of thousands of people?

Ghost Hotel

The first luxury five-star hotel in Kamchatka in the historical heart of the regional center with a gorgeous view of Avacha Bay – one of the most famous long-term construction projects on the peninsula. There is still no approved name, apparently due to a difficult karmic fate. Popularly, the facility is called a hotel near the firehouse or on the shore of Lake Kultuchnoye. The construction of a premium hotel, which tourist Kamchatka needs like air, has been carried out for the eighth year by a resident of the Free Port of Vladivostok, New House LLC. The company belongs to Igor Redkin. Construction officially started in 2016. The first stage of the facility is a nine-story hotel with 140 rooms with a restaurant and conference room planned erect in two years, on the site of an old unfinished building on the street. Leningradskaya, and launch at the end of 2018. In the future, on the basis of the hotel they were going to develop a multifunctional tourist and business entertainment complex with two hotel towers, a spa center and helipads. The government of the Kamchatka Territory, headed at that time by the governor Vladimir Ilyukhin, actively supported construction as a particularly priority project for the region. At the same time, financing was carried out at the expense of the investor’s own funds, the total cost of which at the first stage was estimated at 650 million rubles, but quickly grew to 2 billion.

Since then, officials of all levels and stripes, including federal ones, have repeatedly reported about the imminent delivery of a no-name hotel, but the launch of a luxury complex was becoming increasingly ghostly. The deadlines were postponed first to 2019, then to 2021, and so on. The estimated cost of investments has grown over the years of long-term construction to 10 billion, the height of the two towers to 16 floors, and the total area from 21 thousand sq. m to 25 thousand sq. m. Media data on the number of rooms and other tactical and technical characteristics of the facility vary. Called different sizes from 140 to 180 rooms. Recently, the regional authorities finally voiced pre-finish readiness is 83% – the ceremonial cutting of the ribbon and the launch of a bottle of champagne on board the “ship” will take place in the summer of 2024. Even published photos with beds in the rooms. However, there is a version that the ghost hotel will not float far, and the developer himself is quickly looking for a buyer.

Unfinished construction or self-construction?

The editors have at their disposal extremely interesting expert complaints from 2022-2023 to the regional prosecutor’s office and the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) with reference to the decision of the Kamchatka Arbitration Court in case No. A24-1162/2021.

The documents reflect the position that Igor Redkin’s hotel can be built with numerous violations, which, in the applicant’s opinion, violate the seismic resistance of the buildings and pose a direct danger in the future (Article 1065 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism)). The statements say that Novy Dom LLC began work on the first project in 2016, and continued on the second in 2019, without having construction permits in hand at all—consider it illegal. Without these documents, any object is usually considered illegal and subject to demolition, as a self-construction.

Allegedly, both times the permits were obtained retroactively after a long time, and the Construction Supervision Authority of the Kamchatka Territory turned a blind eye due to the close personal ties of the developer with the regional Administration. As if there was a team from the very top to promote a respected person and his socially significant project, no one paid attention to such little things as permitting documentation, examination or deviations from the project. Kamchatka was becoming one of the main tourist centers of the country, and in the regional capital there was nowhere to accommodate guests.

As a result, the developer had the opportunity to build a five-star high-rise hotel in a seismic zone according to the principle of the dashing Black Sea self-construction: with constant changes, additions and creative finds. It seems that without regard to standards, supervision and experts. An active increase in construction volumes began in 2018, when the two-tower building was almost completed. Then the developer changed the contractor to a seaside company, which could, according to some information, belong to his friend, and, apparently, decided to squeeze more margin out of the project. Instead of moving to the final stage of work, endless alterations began, which, according to experts, could damage the seismic resistance of the building.

Thus, according to one version, the towers mounted on special rubber-metal seismic supports began to break down and rebuild the load-bearing structures without an approved design. And, for example, the load on foundations and structures designed for 21 thousand square meters. m, grew to 25 thousand square meters. Changes to the project and additional strengthening work were carried out, as alleged in the complaints, without the control of supervisory authorities from 2018 to 2020, while the project itself and the expert opinion appeared only in May 2021 retroactively. It turns out that most of the time the hotel was built without a project that had passed the examination and without supervision? Moreover, there is an opinion that when the examination was carried out, it concerned the papers provided by the developer and hardly assessed the real changes at the site. It is also known that the strengthening project was developed by the notorious designer from Vladivostok, New Architecture LLC, the author of those very high-rise buildings whose reliability in the event of tremors is discussed today by residents of Kamchatka.

In the story of the land plot for the construction of a hotel, as in the sensational case of the “elite” residential complex “Olympus”, there is a scandalous trace. As stated in one of the complaints, the lease agreement for the land plot was issued by the Administration of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to the New House company for a one-time period of three years until March 23, 2019, for the completion of unfinished construction. According to the law, if a business does not have time to complete the project, it must be put up for auction and transferred to another developer. However, Redkin’s company was lucky here – in an unknown way, it extended the land lease agreement for another 11 years and can now cut and reshape the miracle of Kamchatka hotel construction until 2030. Regional and city officials turn a blind eye to all complaints about the illegality of the agreement. They refer to the status of a resident of a priority development area, ignoring the Land Code, or to a backdated construction permit from 2017 (read: illegitimate).

The facts described above about the progress of construction of the Redkina hotel were revealed during the consideration of arbitration case No. A24-1162/2021 on a dispute between business entities, which ended in 2021. However, the violations themselves were not related to the subject of the dispute, so the court did not evaluate them. Everything went into sand. Subsequent complaints to the prosecutor’s office, the Ministry of Construction of the Kamchatka Territory and the Administration of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky ended in formal replies. Nobody wants to deal with the possible risks and bungling at the construction site of the century. How could this approach of the authorities turn out? There is something to think about. After all, just recently happened the destruction of a self-built high-rise building in Anapa, or high-rise buildings collapsed during earthquakes in Turkey and Taiwan.

Kamchatka, with its strong tourism potential and lack of hotel infrastructure, of course, desperately needs a five-star hotel. But what is more important: the hotel or the people? To what extent does the design of a luxury hotel, which has undergone dozens, if not hundreds of changes over the course of eight years, meet the urban planning requirements of the most earthquake-prone region of the country? Can the actions of the officials responsible and supervising the construction of the hotel be considered criminal negligence and forgery of documents? And how much can you trust a developer who has little experience in a major construction business, but who at every turn gets caught playing tricks with the law?

The Sandpit Generals

In parallel with the scandalous development in the regional center in the Elizovsky district of the Kamchatka Territory, an environmental conflict is flaring up with another construction company owned by Igor Redkin. And again, accusations of violating the law, this time environmental protection.

The main defendant is LLC Basalt. The company, registered in October 2011, specializes in the extraction of raw materials and the manufacture of products for construction, a resident of the Kamchatka Advanced Development Territory. According to SPARK, the only founder — Redkin Igor Mikhailovich. The general director is Anatoly Kim, who previously held the position of head of the Kamchatka representative office of the Far East Development Corporation, who, according to Version, could have a significant influence on the optimal solution of investment project issues and the allocation of elite land for the construction of commercial real estate by the developer and current director Igor Redkin. The companies “Olymp-Kamchatka”, “New House” and “Basalt” are among the main assets of the construction empire created by Igor Redkin with a continuous production cycle: from the extraction of raw materials to the construction of residential areas.

“The investor is successfully implementing several projects in the region. He is constructing a hotel and business complex on Leningradskaya Street in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. “We are preparing to begin construction of a residential area in the regional center and launch the production of building materials from mined inert raw materials.”, noted Governor of Kamchatka Vladimir Solodov at the March meeting of the Supervisory Board of the Kamchatka ASEZ.

Minor detail. One may get the impression that for some reason all of Igor Redkin’s resident construction companies are seen implementing their breakthrough investment activities in dubious schemes that have been dragging on for years with maximum favorability on the part of a number of local officials.

This, in particular, is confirmed by documents from the Forestry Agency of the Kamchatka Territory and statements from local environmentalists to the regional prosecutor’s office. We are talking about the Pionersky-4 quarry, which Basalt LLC has been developing in Kamchatka for more than 10 years for construction projects, and leasing a forest plot from the state for these purposes. According to environmentalists, the road to the quarry from the Morport-Milkovo federal highway, more than 5 km long, along which heavy equipment has been moving daily for years, was built without permission without obtaining the necessary permits, in violation of the boundaries of the site. Legally, a phantom again? Also, on the site entrusted to “Basalt”, certain forces cut down more than 9 hectares of forest in the federal forest fund for the road and dug up vast territories, which, according to Leskhoz, caused damage to the state in the amount of more than 5 million rubles.

In 2022, under public pressure, the regional Forestry Agency discovered and recorded criminal facts and issued an order to Basalt LLC. Then the local forestry even filed a complaint with the police. However, the Department of Internal Affairs for the Elizovsky municipal district (chief Yu. V. Dudko) refused to initiate a criminal case. The police skillfully referred to the statute of limitations and actually turned the tables on the first head of Basalt LLC, who passed away long ago. Current director of Basalt Anatoly Kim in 2023 reported to the head of the Forestry Agency of the Kamchatka Territory D. Shipitsin, that the company (after more than 10 years of the object’s existence) began geodetic and cadastral work on the forest area through which the road passes, and promised to legalize everything. In the construction business of billionaire Redkin, the same principle seems to apply: chairs in the morning, money in the evening. The response from the director of Basalt to the forestry enterprise does not mention the felling of 9 hectares of Kamchatka stone birch. That’s what they decided on.

Doesn’t burn in fire, doesn’t drown in water

Igor Redkin is a Far Eastern “fish general”, one of the richest people in Kamatka, founder of a number of companies, ex-deputy of the Kamchatka Legislative Assembly of three convocations.

The business began with transport services, the first capital was earned from the sale of Vityaz off-road tractors, the flagship company Vityaz-auto. He received the first quotas for sockeye salmon, issued to the Aldes partnership, in 1995. In 2000, he entered the major league of Kamchatka fish farmers, making the right bet on the new governor Mikhail Mashkovtsev, who formed his own business elite in contrast to the close fishing industry of the former leadership of the region.

In 2008, Vityaz-avto became one of the largest salmon producers in the country, having received a 20-year permit to use the “golden” fishing area in the village of Ozernovsky, Kamchatka Territory, for sockeye salmon fishing.

In addition to the fishing business, the billionaire diversified investments into tourism and small aviation. In 2016, I decided to become a developer. In 2019-2021 During a conflict with a well-known Kamchatka developer, Russky Dvor LLC used the status of a resident of a priority development area for an unconventional scheme take a competitor has an elite plot of land with an area of ​​8 hectares in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky for the construction of a high-rise business-class residential complex “Olympus” with an area of ​​100 thousand sq. m. m of housing. Initially, during the arbitration dispute, another object appeared in the documents – the ice arena. The media dubbed the project the first Kamchatka “human projects” and questioned the quality of the buildings and the reliability of the developer due to possible numerous violations of urban planning regulations.

Since 2021, Igor Redkin has fallen into a “dark streak” with a trail of tragic deaths. First, a scandal at the federal level – a negligent homicide (according to a court decision) with a carbine with a scope worth 3 million rubles. a local resident at a landfill in the village of Ozernovsky during a poaching hunt. Then the crash of an Mi-8 helicopter belonging to the billionaire local airline Vityaz-Aero with the death of five people. Then, in the fall of 2023, there was an emergency on the Kamchatka River Pauzhetka, when, while crossing a water barrier in vehicles, died two, and the businessman himself miraculously survived, having climbed onto the roof of the jeep. Igor Redkin came out of all the troubles almost unharmed. Airline flight bans removed , the vehicle fleet has been updated. The criminal prosecution was stopped following the reconciliation of the parties.

The sight with the carbine was confiscated and expelled from United Russia (*aggressor country).