How construction is progressing in St. Petersburg on Okhta and Tuchkovy Buyan for the relocation of the Supreme Court – April 25, 2024

More than 11 years have passed since Vladimir Putin spoke in favor of moving the Supreme Court to St. Petersburg. During this time, the building of the judicial department almost grew up on Tuchkovy Buyan. And now the paperwork has begun for the future residential complex for judges on Okhta.

The new head of the Supreme Court, Irina Podnosova, said last week that she supports the idea of ​​moving to St. Petersburg. On April 24, the Committee on Urban Planning and Architecture issued urban planning plans (GPZU) for the area in front of the Okhtinskaya Hotel – two plots with a total area of ​​16.6 thousand square meters. m on Bolsheokhtinsky Prospekt, across the road from the Neva. It is in this place that a residential complex for judges of the Supreme Court is planned to be built.

Obtaining a GPZU is one of the first stages of implementing a construction or reconstruction project. The document contains detailed information about the site, in particular about utilities and the possibility of connecting them, as well as maximum construction parameters: for example, number of floors and area, types of permitted use, possible restrictions, etc.

In the summer of 2023, archaeological excavations began at the site of the future development. Both sites are partly within the boundaries of the monument – what remains of the Swedish city of Nyen. Archaeologists found about 50 thousand historical elements, paved streets, and the foundations of presumably food warehouses. The work was completed in December, the paving and foundation were preserved and included within the boundaries of the monument.

It is known about the future residential complex that judges and staff of the Supreme Court will live there. The residential complex is designed for 600 apartments. The master plan allows for large-scale construction in this place: the plots are located in the zone of multi-storey residential buildings – from 9 floors and above.

According to data from the government procurement website, the design documentation is currently being adjusted. The contract for these works at the end of 2021 was concluded by the customer for the construction of all the “judicial” buildings and at the same time the Boris Eifman Dance Palace there, on Dobrolyubov Avenue, by the Administrative Department of the President of the Russian Federation. It should be completed before the end of 2024. The contract is carried out by the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Repair and Construction Administration” of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation,” which is also the contractor under the construction contract.

In February, the parties entered into an additional agreement on the contract to adjust the project. Attached to it there is an estimate with a more detailed description of the future residential complex; the estimate itself is calculated in prices of the third quarter of 2021. It contains four residential buildings with a total area of ​​77.6 thousand square meters. m up to 10 floors high. Commercial premises on the ground floor include a bar, cafe, shops, dry cleaning, clothing and shoe repair, and a “room for working with children.” Below is underground parking for 436 cars.

Work to adjust the project of the first stage, the construction of the Supreme Court building and the judicial department, has already been completed; an acceptance certificate was published on the public procurement website on April 24.

A palace and a department grew up on Tuchkovy Buyan.

Behind the annoying blue construction fence, which is clearly visible from both the Malaya Neva and Dobrolyubov Avenue, on the territory of Tuchkov Buyan there are two buildings under construction – the Boris Eifman Dance Palace and, closer to the water, the judicial department of the Supreme Court. Both have already acquired a clear resemblance to the sketch made by the architectural studio “Evgeniy Gerasimov and Partners”.

The department building has already been rebuilt. There is now a temporary structure on the roof where the atrium glazing should be. The windows are glazed; from a distance it may seem that the building has only three high floors, but in fact there are six of them, plus one more underground. The Dance Palace is being built next door: you can see the finishing work on the facades. It can be assumed that construction of the Supreme Court building itself should soon begin – Fontanka sent a request to the Presidential Administrative Department with a request to clarify the issue with the timing.

All in the same estimate from the additional agreement on the contract for adjusting the project, one can glean that they want to locate a parking lot with 486 places under the Supreme Court, in the building itself there will be space for a library, a museum, a gym, a hairdresser, four buffets (two each for 30 and 50 places ), the same number of bars (two each with 40 and 25 seats) and the same number of dining rooms. In the same building there is a mechanized car wash and tire service.

The department has a standard set: a canteen, a first-aid post, a library, a buffet. The same estimate also includes adjustments to documentation for landscaping: 2.63 hectares for “parks, gardens, squares, boulevards”, a children’s playground, a bicycle path and a pedestrian alley with observation decks, “silt platforms, storage ponds and ponds” up to 5 meters deep , fountain. It is difficult to judge how relevant the items listed in the improvement estimate are now.

The “Tuchkov Buyan” park, which Acting Governor Alexander Beglov, who wore the prefix in 2019, promised to St. Petersburg residents, is not yet visible behind the blue fence. A competition for the concept of this park was held 3.5 years ago, since then there was silence, until at the beginning of 2022 the news broke that the concept of the park was no longer relevant – the Judicial Quarter was returning to this place, however, only its business part – the building itself Supreme Court and Judicial Department, housing was moved to Okhta. True, it was possible to see the construction itself a month before the announcement of this news; Fontanka showed what the growing building of the judicial department looked like from the air, which at that time in Smolny was evasively called the “engineering and technological block.” True, at the same time Smolny repeated its promise that “there will be a park.” But in the best case, its area will be 4–5 hectares instead of the original 9 hectares.

To be fair, the city authorities have no legal ability to dispose of the land behind the blue fence – the territory is still federal. Fontanka has already explained the formal subtleties of the situation: the entire territory is a single area, which is burdened by the user in the person of the Presidential Administration. St. Petersburg will be able to plan expenses for designing a park only after the territory is cut up so that what remains for the park becomes a separate site and is transferred to the ownership of the city. This cannot be done until the theater and judges’ construction is completed, that is, sometime after 2026.

A faint ray of hope for the park was given by the adoption of a new general plan at the end of 2023: in the old version of the document, the entire site was a business construction zone, now its eastern part, 5.5 hectares, has become the P3 recreational zone, which is intended for botanical gardens, zoos and theme parks .

The total amount of the contract for the construction of judicial buildings on Dobrolyubov and Bolsheokhtinsky Avenues, as well as the Eifman Dance Palace, is 35.7 billion rubles. The latest additional agreement in February 2024 slightly redistributed the amount of funding for work by year: in the previous version from October 2023, there was zero opposite 2024, now – 863.4 million rubles. In 2026, it was planned to allocate 18.826 billion rubles; now the amount, accordingly, has decreased to 17.96 billion. The contract itself, which has previously been extended several times, is valid until December 31, 2026.