Helen Marlen Group brings the world’s most luxurious brands to Pasazh, where they own six luxury clothing shops, with a men’s boutique to open this year.
Michael and Oksana Kavitzki are devoted to Kyiv’s downtown Pasazh, not for the shopping, but as its biggest investors.
Their company, Helen Marlen Group, brings the world’s most luxurious brands to the street, where they own half a dozen luxury clothing shops, with their latest addition, a men’s clothing boutique, to open this year.
The Kavitzkis operate six of the 29 businesses on Pasazh, Michael Kavitzki said, and are leading a campaign to turn Kyiv’s famous downtown passageway into a mirror image of upscale alleys in Paris and Milan.
“The ‘Luxury Street’ project will of course increase the street’s rental value,” Michael Kavitzki said, referring to his vision of Pasazh. “I would say it is a turning point (for the street).”
Pasazh features a handful of outdoor restaurants and cafes, but the Kavitzkis want to bring more upscale retailers to the street, on the same level as the Gucci and Burberry outlets they now operate.
An American architect, who designed similar shops in New York and Milan, is planning the new 350squaremeter boutique, which is the Kavitzkis’ seventh store after opening their first shop, Pasazh 15, a multibrand outlet, just two years ago.
In their campaign, the Kavitzkis offered other retailers the option to rent their spaces and were declined, but “we don’t stop making offers,” Michael Kaviztki said.
More than expanding their business, the Kavitzkis made it their mission to polish up Pasazh and have already met with city officials, including Assistant City Council Chair Irena Kilchytska.
“We’ll do our best to turn Pasazh into what it should be,” Michael Kavitzki said. “We’ll do our best, we’ll cooperate with any authority necessary to implement the project, but I don’t think this is just my mission. There are others interested in it.”
Specifically, they want to renovate facades, replace cobblestones, collect garbage, and, perhaps the most popular idea, ban vehicles from traveling down the narrow alley, located off Kyiv’s main boulevard, Khreschatyk.
“We negotiated with the City Administration and feel they got interested,” Michael Kavitzki said. “Something must be done so that stones don’t fall from balconies.”
A plan to reconstruct facades was developed in 2005, and the Kavitzkis even employed refurbishing specialists who soon hoisted themselves onto scaffolds, but local residents demanded a stop to the efforts.
“It’s proven difficult to get the consent of people living on the street,” he added.
City officials support the renovation because it will be based on historical knowledge and the architectural style of the facades will be preserved, said Maryna Shapoval, head of the press service of the city’s Main Administration of City Planning, Architecture and Design.
“I don’t see anything wrong in turning Pasazh into a fashion street, as the street’s function will remain the same,” she said. “It is a retail street, as planned.”
Ultimately, the Kavitzkis’ plans will accomplish a third goal of boosting the passageway’s attractiveness and value even further.
“Nothing enhances real estate as much as the luxury fashion market,” Michael Kavitzki said.
Pasazh boasts some of Kyiv’s highest rents, or $220 per square meter, compared with the city average of $130 per square meter, said Olena Duliba, chief editor of Real Estate magazine.
“The Pasazh was and will always be popular among brands or franchise companies for whom location does matter and that are prepared to pay for it,” Duliba said.
Founded in 1994, the Helen Marlen Group manages 13 shops in Kyiv and the franchising rights for 70 top fashion brands. Their stores offer top of the line brands such as Salvatore Ferragamo, Roberto Cavalli and Louis Vuitton, the brand favored by Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
