Developers who started by privatizing a shed in the yard are now proposing to demolish neighboring buildings
The picturesque neighborhood in Zvirynets, located between Kateryna Bilokur, Mykhailo Boichuk, and Bastionna streets, is under threat of demolition: local residents are being handed brochures about a "reconstruction" project for their homes, which involves erecting 16-story buildings in their place.
How a little-known company that began with the privatization of a small technical facility in the yard has now expanded its plans to demolish an entire neighborhood is analyzed by Kashtan NEWS.
1 From a garbage collector to reconstruction
Plans to demolish three buildings, constructed over seventy years ago by the prominent Ukrainian architect Anatoliy Dobrovolskyi, were reported in early December by Kyiv heritage protector Dmytro Perov.
“The enterprise with the tongue-twisting name LLC ‘Apartgruppbud’ privatized a garbage collector in the yard of a building at Bilokur St. 6 using the old reliable ‘toilet scheme.’ It was a technical facility, so they hastily invented an address for it – Bilokur St. 6d. Then, the owners of the newly registered property asked the Kyiv City Council to transfer the land to them for the construction of a multi-story complex with entertainment establishments,” Perov wrote on his Facebook page.
Now, brochures outlining the "reconstruction" plan are being distributed to residents of the neighborhood, which stipulates the demolition of three neighboring buildings on Kateryna Bilokur Street and the relocation of their residents.
“After relocation, the demolition of buildings at the addresses: Kateryna Bilokur St. 4, 6, 8 is planned. Three sixteen-story buildings and the reconstruction of kindergarten No. 157 ‘Dzyvynochok’ are slated to be built on the site of the demolished buildings,” the brochure states, a photo of which was published by Dmytro Perov.
2 “As you may have guessed, the construction will be handled by the owner of the toilet… I mean, the garbage collector,” notes the heritage protector.
What exactly is planned for demolition on Kateryna Bilokur Street
The buildings in Zvirynets were mostly constructed in the late 1940s to early 1950s.
“Stylistically, the development can be attributed to post-war Soviet retro-stylism (historicism) of the 1940s-1950s. Specifically, elements influenced by Ukrainian folk architecture (roofs with wide overhangs, twisted columns), folk decorative art (rosettes under cornices, half-columns entwined with grapes), Ukrainian Baroque (pediments, some portals), neoclassicism (ionic columns, coffered ceilings), and Spanish architecture of the 16th-17th centuries (massive entrance groups) were used in shaping the architectural image of the buildings,” characterizes this area Kyiv local historian Anton Korob.
3 This is a green, shady area with the lowest population density in the city center. Thus, it’s not surprising that it has long been a desired target for developers: specifically, in 2006-2007, LLC ‘Avangardbud’ proposed to reconstruct the ‘outdated’ neighborhood within the streets of Kikvidze, Bastionna, Bilokur, and Pidvysotskoho and to build new structures, including cramming a 25-story residential building into it. At that time, this proposal faced active opposition from the neighborhood residents.
In 2008, by order of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism No. 1285/0/16-08, the buildings in this neighborhood were included in the State Register of Immovable Monuments of Ukraine as objects of cultural heritage. This included numbers 4, 6, and 8 on Kateryna Bilokur Street, which the new developer now proposes to demolish.
4 The land under the shed
The scandal regarding the “toilet scheme,” which Dmytro Perov wrote about, erupted in August of this year. It turned out that a year earlier, LLC ‘Apartgruppbud’ secured ownership of a small technical facility in the yard, which served for garbage collection and storage of janitors' tools, and managed to register it as a real estate object with the address Kateryna Bilokur St. 6d.
On August 26, 2024, a draft decision appeared on the Kyiv City Council's website proposing to lease the land where the former technical facility is located to ‘Apartgruppbud’ for ten years “for the construction and maintenance of a multi-apartment residential building with trade, entertainment, and market infrastructure facilities.”
As stated in the explanatory note signed by the director of the Land Resources Department of the Kyiv City State Administration, Valentyna Pelykh, the area of the plot is 0.1479 hectares and it is located:
- in the zone of regulation for the construction of the local significance landscape and historical monument “Historical Landscape of the Kyiv Hills and the Dnipro River Valley”;
- in the zone of regulation for the construction of II category of the local significance monument of garden-park architecture and unique green areas in Kyiv “Central Botanical Garden of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, Kyiv, Tymiryazev St. 1, Pechersk District;” and in the protected forest parks-monuments of garden-park art of local significance “Central Republican Botanical Garden of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, Kyiv, Pechersk District.”
The garbage collector on this plot was described by the Department as “a public building with a total area of 192.8 sq. m, owned by LLC ‘APARTBUDGROUP,’ the ownership right registered in the State Register of Real Rights on Immovable Property on 18.09.2023, record number of property rights 51829614).”
In reality, this “public building” is a small brick shed in the middle of the yard. The attempt to obtain a huge land plot for rent under the pretext of ownership of this facility exemplifies the typical “toilet” scheme often used during land frauds in the capital. Initially, the developer privatizes any small facility – a shed or even a standalone toilet (hence the name of the scheme), then this facility is legally transformed into a “building,” and the owner requests the adjacent land plot. After that, the original object is demolished, and a new multi-story building is constructed in its place.
5
Fortunately, the plans to build a multi-story building in the cozy Pechersk yard on the site of the shed were uncovered by activists and Kyiv media, leading to such a scandal that the relevant committees of the Kyiv City Council decided to withdraw the project from consideration to avoid further issues. However, it has not been definitively rejected, and residents of neighboring buildings fear that sooner or later it will resurface on the agenda. Additional justification for these fears comes from the active promotion by the developer of the idea to “reconstruct” the entire neighborhood, which we mentioned at the beginning of the article.
Kashtan NEWS will closely monitor the developments.
Konstantin MYKHAILENKO