On 17 December 2009, the Guild of Property Managers and Developers held the 7th Annual Christmas Summit on the progress made in the real estate market development in 2009. The event was traditionally held at the Grand Hotel Europe. It was attended by over 150 representatives of real-property and banking companies and the St Petersburg city administration.
The main topics for discussion were the year's results and forecasts for the St-Petersburg real estate market: the increasing role of the State as an active player in the real estate market, the record low number of investment transactions, and analysis of market sectors.
The event was sponsored by EKE Group, and Andrei Hitrov, Managing director of EKE Group in St Petersburg, made a presentation in the Business Centres section. He summed up the results of 2009 for the real estate market in general and for the Pulkovo Sky project in particular, assessed the developer's decisions in the context of the economic crisis, gave a forecast for the market development and outlined EKE's strategy for the following year.
According to Andrei, the main trends in the real estate market in 2009 were the reduction in rental rates down to 20% even for relocation to much better premises, and companies' commitment to cutting the office costs, even by renting less space. EKE does not expect 2010 to revitalize the market; the tenant demand will be low; there will be no growth in rent rates.
When talking about the Pulkovo Sky business centre, Mr Hitrov said that on the whole the project was successful: practically all the decisions taken by the company before the crisis (to purchase a land plot in the booming business area of Pulkovo-3 and to give up on building a hotel and shopping facilities) had proved to be correct. The only thing that should have been done differently was a parallel, instead of phased, development of all three office blocks.
Nevertheless, providing the business centre with state-of-the-art European-made equipment and using flexible design solutions made it possible to ensure the occupancy of the business centre at nearly 80 percent by the end of 2009. The conditions being difficult, the 2010 strategy for Pulkovo Sky will be better service provided to existing tenants and flexible solutions offered to each new tenant.
At the end of the event, EKE Group presented all participants with a festive cake - a replica of the business centre.
