The residents of Obolon have once again defended their coastal area, but will this be the last round?
Deputy Head of the Kyiv City State Administration, Petro Olenych, along with the Department of Land Resources, has withdrawn their draft decision that proposed transferring a plot of land in Obolon for construction near the future "aquapark" of Klitschko.
This is evidenced by the project card published on the official Kyiv Council website.
3 What lay behind the dry lines of the withdrawn project and why it sparked outrage among the residents of Obolon – read in the new article from Kashtan NEWS.
30-story Iris Tower
The address of the plot discussed in the joint project of Olenych and the land department has appeared in the news of Kyiv media and city public pages multiple times in recent years. This is the area located opposite the spit that separates the Obolon and Sobache Hyrlo bays, in close proximity to the green zone where Klitschko has been dreaming of building a subterranean-above-ground parking lot for years. Currently, there is a two-story non-residential building located on the plot at Pririchna Street, 13.
Kyiv residents first learned about plans to construct a 30-story skyscraper on this territory in August 2022 when real estate websites in the capital began advertising luxury apartments in the future residential complex "Iris Tower." According to “Encyclopedia of New Buildings”, the residential complex was supposed to be a gated community featuring a 30-story residential building with a recreation area, a children's playground, and parking for 99 vehicles.
The construction of "Iris Tower" was to be carried out by the LLC "Ukrainian Construction Holding," whose leader and ultimate beneficiary is the well-known Kyiv businessman Yevhen Leskiv – the president of the Ukrainian Waste Recycling Association, owner of a group of Kyiv construction companies, and, according to data from Clarity Project, a former head of the primary district organization of the Party of Regions in the Solomyanskyi district.
4 It is clear that the idea of placing a 30-story monster on the outdated and inadequate infrastructure of the neighborhood did not excite local residents, prompting activists from Obolon to protest against Leskiv's plans. Especially since his "Ukrainian Construction Holding" planned (and, judging by real estate sales websites, likely still plans) to develop the coastline and the neighboring Verblyud Bay: near the recreation bases "P'yatnytsia" and "Smaragdova," another residential complex – Obolon House – was to be built.
Ultimately, the residents of Obolon were able to raise enough noise for the Kyiv authorities to temporarily abandon the idea of handing over the plot at Pririchna, 13, for another skyscraper by Leskiv. However, after two and a half years, the situation repeated itself – albeit with seemingly different players in the leading roles.
What happened next
On December 13, 2024, Deputy Head of the Kyiv City State Administration Petro Olenych, along with the Department of Land Resources led by Valentyna Pelykh, submitted a draft decision to the Kyiv Council regarding the lease of the infamous plot on Pririchna for ten years to an LLC "Novoservisbud Invest," which has owned the same non-residential two-story building mentioned at the beginning of this article since 2021.
According to the explanatory note to the project, the area of the building is 1554.3 sq. m, and the area of the plot with cadastral number 8000000000:78:028:0013, claimed by "Novoservisbud Invest," is 0.3818 hectares. The cost of the plot is 26.6 million hryvnias, and its intended purpose is defined in the note as "for the construction and maintenance of administrative buildings, office buildings of companies engaged in profit-making entrepreneurial activities (for the operation and maintenance of non-residential buildings)."
5 Despite the absence of residential building construction in the intended purpose, information about this project sparked significant excitement in Obolon public forums. And it’s clear why: over the past few years, Kyiv residents have repeatedly witnessed how the intended purpose of particularly attractive plots miraculously changed from one to another. Especially since the plot that "Novoservisbud Invest" is eyeing was formed, among other things, from the adjoining territory of a neighboring apartment building at Pririchna, 17.
In short, the draft decision submitted by Olenych and Co. bore such a resemblance to the "deceased" 30-story "Iris Tower" that Obolon activists began recalling the previous achievements of Leskiv's company.
“The developer of the project was initially supposed to be the company UBH (LLC "Ukrainian Construction Holding"), which is already building the elite residential complex Pusha House in Pushcha-Vodytsia and planned to build no less elite residential complex Obolon House in the Obolon meadows before the full-scale war began. It is currently unknown whether LLC "Novoservisbud Invest" belongs to this company or if the project was acquired by another developer. However, it is possible that it was the investment funds of this company that Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko was referring to when announcing the arrangement of a park on the spit between the nearby bays. It is evident that both the park and the two-level parking lot will be built to increase the investment appeal of the elite complex, as there is almost no parking space next to it,” writes the portal “My Obolon”.
Hidden Connections
In fact, the answer to whether "Novoservisbud Invest" has ties to LLC "Ukrainian Construction Holding" can be found in the public domain. As indicated in the explanatory note to the draft decision, the ultimate beneficiary and one of the founders of LLC "Novoservisbud Invest" is Zhytomyr resident Olha Leonidivna Kryher. The second founder is Kyiv resident Alla Oleksandrivna Fedak. However, according to Opendatabot, this was not always the case: at least in 2021, Yevhen Serhiyovych Leskiv was listed as the founder instead of Fedak.
6 Additionally, according to the same Opendatabot database, Yevhen Leskiv is listed or has been listed as the head of a number of companies owned by Alla Fedak: LLC "Kyivbuddevelopment," LLC "Smittyevyi Korol," LLC "Fan Corp," LLC "Shepit Village," and others.
7 8 Thus, the suspicions of Obolon activists seem to be well-founded: LLC "Novoservisbud Invest" is, to put it mildly, closely linked to Leskiv, whose company attempted to build a 30-story skyscraper on this plot two years ago. And since this connection is clearly evident, it would likely surface if the draft decision submitted by Olenych made it to the Kyiv Council session hall.
It is possible that such considerations prompted the land and entrepreneurial commissions of the Kyiv Council to return this project to the submitters (i.e., Petro Olenych and the Department of Land Resources) on December 19, and the submitters themselves to withdraw their creation to avoid further complications. Whether this means that the plans to squeeze a 30-story building on the shores of Sobache Hyrlo have been definitively shelved remains unclear.
Kashtan NEWS will continue to monitor the developments.
Yuliya TYENENOVA
For more on the plans to build a skyscraper in Obolon, watch the latest episode of the YouTube project “In the Shade of the Chestnut” at this link