Workers of a municipal company under the Kyiv City State Administration took down part of the fence and the gates protecting the construction site of a residential complex in Kyiv on Nov. 4.
The company that ordered the construction of the complex, Buyfish Holdings, claims the dismantling was illegal and accuses the city authorities of pressuring their business. The construction itself is carried out by developer KADORR Group, which is owned by Kyiv Post publisher Adnan Kivan.
Employees of Kyivblagoustriy, a municipal firm responsible for the improvement of Kyiv’s urban infrastructure, in turn, say the firm had no permission to install the fence around the construction site on 17 Mykhaila Boichuka St.
However, according to Buyfish Holdings CEO Andrii Aleksandrov, the fence was located on a land plot that was leased by his company, and there was no reason to separately coordinate the setup of the fence with the city.
Aleksandrov also pointed out that authorities published the order to dismantle the fence around the complex named Pechersk Plaza 52 back in April, but did it only now — two months before the end of construction and seven years after the fence was initially erected.
A photo of a dismantled fence next to residential complex Pechersk Plaza 52 on 17 Mykhaila Boichuka St. in Kyiv on Nov. 4, 2020. The complex is built by developer KADORR Group for construction firm Buyfish Holdings. (Oleg Petrasiuk)
Today Kyivblagoustriy’s workers took down only the gates and six segments of the fence, but between Nov. 5 and Nov. 9, they will come back and pull down the rest of it. Aleksandrov believes that by doing this the Kyiv authorities try to pressure his company.
Now Buyfish Holdings will increase the number of guards.
Before the incident, Kyivblagoustriy offered Buyfish Holdings to purchase a permit for temporary violation of the public amenities. However, Buyfish Holdings refused, claiming that they had the right to build a fence on the leased land.
The company sent on Nov. 4 a complaint to the Kyiv City Administration and, in particular, to the Department of the City Urban Planning, which is in charge of Kyivblagoustriy.
On the other hand, Tymur Tkachenko, first deputy director of the department, says that Kyivblagoustriy acted according to the law.
“The rules of the urban improvement of Kyiv have been in force since 2008. According to them, the installation of any fence on the land must be carried out… after obtaining a permit (for temporary violation of the city planning rules),” Tkachenko told the Kyiv Post.
“At the request of the order, no documents were provided to confirm that the fence was installed in accordance with these rules,” he said.
Buyfish Holdings faced similar problems in the past. Several years ago, the municipal management company for housing maintenance of Kyiv’s Pechersk district took down their fence, too. In 2017, Buyfish Holdings sued authorities for these actions and won the case.
The municipal company had to return their property but it didn’t return anything, despite the court’s ruling, according to Aleksandrov.
There were also “illegal checks” by authorities from the State Architectural and Building Inspection of Ukraine. In one case, Buyfish Holdings won (2016) and lost in another one (2017).
The project for Residential complex Pechersk Plaza 52 was presented in 2015 by construction company Energopol Ukraina, which started building it back then. But the company stopped the construction soon after and handed over the contract to another developer, KADORR Group.
