April 25, Saint-Petersburg: Sergey Pavlov, Head of marketing department of GVA Sawyer, Saint-Petersburg, acted as an expert on office real estate during a round table discussion on Quality of Business Center Construction
A round table discussion on the issues of construction of business centers and office complexes, organized by the Real Estate and Construction in Saint-Petersburg, took place in Saint-Petersburg on April 25.
The round table discussion was attended by consultants, property managers, developers, as well as real estate brokers. Sergey Pavlov, representative of GVA Sawyer, spoke to the discussion participants on the compliance of new buildings with the announced class; on the typical mistakes made by developers, and the ways of avoiding them; which new technologies and engineering solutions are recommended and which should not be implemented, and whether the market needs office construction standards.
April 17 – 18, Moscow: Evelina Pavlovskaya, Consulting Vice President of GVA Sawyer, conducted a master class on implementation of the optimal concept for a mixed-use complex
Practical conference titled “Mixed-use: all pros and cons”, devoted to the issues of construction and development, concept elaboration and subsequent management of the mixed-use complex, took place in Moscow, Holiday Inn Moscow Suschevsky, on April 17-18.
Evelina Pavlovskaya, Consulting Vice President of GVA Sawyer, spoke in the second part of the conference, having conducted a master class on The Right Choice of an Architect. In her speech, Evelina analyzed the most complicated scheme of relationship with architects – organization of an international competition, which differs from a tender in the following way: during a competition, several preliminarily selected architectural bureaus fulfill the assignment simultaneously, the results determine which of the bureaus will be chosen as the design contractor.
The work is divided into several stages. The first stage includes long-listing of architecture bureaus, approved by the customer. The long listed bureaus receive information letter offering to take part in the project. In case of the architect’s consent, he receives the technical assignment - for information and formulation of commercial terms. At this stage, it is crucial to adequately formulate the requirements in the Technical Assignment. Later, all the commercial offers from the competitors are collected and analyzed by the consultant on the basis of a system of criteria, and a conclusion is formulated for the customer. After discussion and contract signing by the selected architecture bureaus and the customer, work starts on the accepted commercial offer, involving permanent interaction between the consultant, the architect and the customer.
After development of the architecture and city planning concept, evaluation of the intermediate results, provided by the competitors, and design correction, the competitors’ works are assessed and the winner design is selected. Upon that, the assessment of the final works can be based on certain criteria, for example, large areas are evaluated by the compliance of the offered solutions with New Urbanism or Green Development parameters.
April 2008, Moscow, regions: Retail and entertainment experts of GVA Sawyer, in cooperation with the company’s partner Finstar Properties RU, presented the technique of land plot assessment for allocation of chain, regional retail projects, and its practical use to the MALL exhibition participants
GVA Sawyer conducted a master class within the MALL exhibition business program on April 10, 2008. The master class was targeted at presentation of the unique technique, developed by the company’s specialists for assessment of land plot attractiveness, to the professional community.
Andrey Vasyutkin, Head of retail and entertainment sector within the Consulting department of GVA Sawyer, dwelled upon the main tasks of the new technique and the stages of its implementation. «Such technique is a new service in the consulting market. Every time you develop such models, you have to take into account the particular situation, the customer’s requirements», – Andrey commented. – «When elaborating the technique for Finstar Properties RU, we were supposed to assist them in solving a concrete problem – a search of land plots, most suitable for creation of a retail chain, within the shortest possible period. We analyzed the task and worked out the technique of sorting the large volume of information on the land plots available on the market».
The technique can be split into three main blocks – macroeconomic evaluation of the city, analysis of the resource quality of a specific land plot, preliminary efficiency analysis of the project investment. While the first one focuses on the evaluation of the general attractiveness of the city or the region in terms of allocation of retail projects, the second one requires deep analysis of the specific land plot – the quality of its location within the city structure. The third block is meant for comparison of the investment attractiveness of retail projects located on different land plots. Based on this research, a decision is taken on further research and concept formulation or abandoning the site.
The suggested procedure of Land plot selection makes the developed technique particularly convenient – the assessment is performed with the help of specially developed software, a system of standard characteristics, factor evaluation. This allows Finstar Properties RU to assess various sites using strictly fixed rules, leaving out discrepancies that occur in case of site assessment by different users. Download the full version of presentation by Andrey Vasyutkin, GVA Sawyer
Larissa Cherkasova, Head of the Consulting department of Finstar Properties RU, spoke on the practical experience of using the above technique. She illustrated her speech with the examples of two sites assessed by using the technique. The site in Syktyvkar received the passing score and was selected for the development of a retail center, while the site in Penza scored low, and the decision on it was negative. The site assessment included the macro-and micro location of the sites, their location within the city structure. Download the full version of presentation by Larissa Cherkasova, Finstar Properties RU
To conclude the technique master class, GVA Sawyer brokers presented to the participants the company’s exclusive project – Kaskad retail center in Cheboksary. Julia Kharcheviva, Head of the retail sector of Commercial Real Estate Department, spoke on the practical experience of GVA Sawyer in the sales of retail spaces. «It is crucial for the owner to work in close liaison with the broker at the very early stage, beginning from site selection and concept formulation», – Julia noted. – «At these stages brokers can already perform pre-marketing evaluation, determine tenant format, choose potential anchors, etc., to provide the best project yields eventually».
April 15 – 16, Moscow: Vera Setskaya, President of GVA Sawyer, acted as an expert on the management and development of hotel real estate.
The II All Russian conference titled “Hospitable real estate. Components of success”, devoted to the trends and perspectives of hotel property market development, was held at Swissotel Red Hills on April 15-16.
The issues discussed on the first day included investment attraction, tax exemption for hotel property development, peculiarities of sale and the ways of risk minimization for investment into hotel real estate. The second day of the conference was dedicated to the issues of management and development of hotel real estate. The day was opened by Vera Setskaya, President of GVA Sawyer, who delivered a speech titled ”Manage or develop. Develop and manage: hotel developers”.
Mrs. Setskaya began her speech with general recommendations on the relationship between the owner, the developer and the hotel operator, with a special emphasis on the necessity to execute the agreement with the selected hotel operator at an early construction stage.
Further, the speaker dwelled upon the issue of hotel designing ”from the inner to the outer” – technical characteristics are determined at the first stage, they are followed by the structure and, at the last stage, the architectural solution and exterior design. Upon that, special attention was paid to the area distribution principles.
A separate part of the presentation was devoted to project control mechanisms, general recommendation were provided concerning project development approach. To conclude the presentation, Mrs. Setskaya analyzed examples of western design practice in terms of Russian standards.
April 15, Moscow: Dmitry Sazanchikov, Marketing and Regional development Director of GVA Sawyer, spoke at II annual conference titled “Cottage settlement: from A to Z”
The II annual conference organized by Cottage.ru, research and information portal on suburban real estate, was held at Marriott Grand Hotel, Moscow, on April 15.
GVA Sawyer has vast experience in concept elaboration for cottage settlements in different regions of Russia: Moscow, Leningrad, Rostov, Kaluga, and Sverdlovsk regions, Krasnodar territory and other areas. Dmitry Sazanchikov, Marketing and Regional development Director of GVA Sawyer, shared the accumulated knowledge with the conference participants, having delivered a speech titled «Peculiarities of demand and supply of cottage settlements in Moscow region and the regions of Russia. Comparative analysis». In his speech, Dmitry analyzed the development stages of suburban property market, the geography of demand, market structure, using the example of several cities – Moscow and Saint-Petersburg (as examples of the most developed suburban property markets), as well as Ufa and Krasnodar, cities where the market is just starting to shape. Using the example of these cities, he provided a brief characteristic of a quality settlement, which varied depending on the extent of market development in the given region. While in Saint-Petersburg, for example, such a settlement is located 50 km from the city, in Krasnodar it is situated within the city boundaries, and the quality characteristics of the settlement are higher. To conclude, Dmitry provided the comparative portrait of a potential buyer for three cities – Moscow, Ufa and Krasnodar - in Moscow the potential customer’s income is $2500 to 5000, in Ufa – $1200 to 1900, in Krasnodar just $1000 per person.
GVA Sawyer conducted a master class within the MALL exhibition business program on April 10, 2008. The master class was targeted at presentation of the unique technique, developed by the company’s specialists for assessment of land plot attractiveness, to the professional community.
Andrey Vasyutkin, Head of retail and entertainment sector within the Consulting department of GVA Sawyer, dwelled upon the main tasks of the new technique and the stages of its implementation. «Such technique is a new service in the consulting market. Every time you develop such models, you have to take into account the particular situation, the customer’s requirements», – Andrey commented. – «When elaborating the technique for Finstar Properties RU, we were supposed to assist them in solving a concrete problem – a search of land plots, most suitable for creation of a retail chain, within the shortest possible period. We analyzed the task and worked out the technique of sorting the large volume of information on the land plots available on the market».
Larissa Cherkasova, Head of the Consulting department of Finstar Properties RU, spoke on the practical experience of using the above technique. She illustrated her speech with the examples of two sites assessed by using the technique. The site in Syktyvkar received the passing score and was selected for the development of a retail center, while the site in Penza scored low, and the decision on it was negative. The site assessment included the macro-and micro location of the sites, their location within the city structure.