With a careful eye to the authorities

Industrial areas redevelopment implies the city master plan change request, which is happening very slowly.

Also, a more rapid areas design planning is needed. "It will be a very big support for redevelopment if the city organizes an accelerated procedure for the preparation of planning documentation," says Konstantin Kovalev, First Deputy General Director of "Pioneer Group" in Saint-Petersburg.
Alexey Bernikov, the marketing analyst in JSC "Prime Group" notes: "The main constraint for redevelopment is the lack of specific city administration plans to transform the industrial areas. Moreover, in the last couple of years there have been several applications for suspension of industries output from the center of St. Petersburg, which restrains the industrial zones redevelopment."
Positive changes in this matter will take place only in the case of approval of the new master plan of St. Petersburg with the introduction of changes in it relating to the output of industrial enterprises (other than hazardous industries) outside the limits of St. Petersburg. This means, that until 2015 no progress can be expected. It remains to wait for the results of parliamentarians’ work carried out at the close of public testimony, dedicated to the changes to the city master plan."
However, experts believe that not all enterprises need to be put out of St. Petersburg. "At its time, St. Petersburg, at that times still Leningrad, used to be traditionally the capital of the R&D institutes. Since then there has survived the so-called developmental production, which produces model samples; there is developing, and manufacturing in process. It is clear that such objects have the right to remain in populated areas, because they do not carry any restrictions”, says Mr. Kovalev. “By contrast, heavy industry, for example, mechanical engineering, metalworking, where there exist strong sanitary and epidemiological limitations, in my opinion, should be displayed in the industrial zone outside the city limits," he adds.
Marina Fedorova, Deputy Business Development Director in North-West region in “Spectrum Group” notes: “High-tech production will most likely remain in the city because of the human factor, but the owners should make the final decision. City must form its long-term industrial policy regarding this matter and should make the enterprises aware of this policy. Of course, there are some enterprises required for the city as long as they provide jobs for the citizens, in which case there should be additional preferences from the state."
Head of the Consulting Center "Petersburg Real Estate» Olga Trosheva estimates that currently approximately 1 million m.2 of properties (both under construction and on sale) is located in the former industrial areas, which makes 8-10% of the primary market volume.
She believes that in terms of the future development volume the most promising areas are Moscovsky and Nevsky districts. "Each of them accounts for 18-20% of the total number of the announced redevelopment projects. Also, a large number of projects are planned in the Admiralteysky district (13%) and on Vasilevsky Island (10.8%),"
she says.

Opinion:

Konstantin Kovalev, first Deputy General Director of "Pioneer Group" in Saint-Petersburg
Nowadays, one the biggest problem in all big cities is commuting. In the morning, people leave the outskirts of the city to go to the city center, in the evening they come back. This imposes load on the roads, on the traffic, because the peak load cannot be compensated. Transport paths are laid through industrial areas. Redevelopment allows to increase the population in such areas and to reduce the load on the transport infrastructure.