According to an article in the newspaper RBC Daily, following the opening of pedestrian streets in the center of Moscow these areas immediately become the focus of great interest on the part of retailers and food service operators. Lease rates in such areas have jumped 20% above the average rates. Market experts do rule out that major streets neighboring these pedestrian areas will also see higher rates.
“Market participants do not anticipate a substantial increase in lease rates along the retail corridors of the capital. However, everyone sees preconditions for price growth. One of the restraining factors is the signing of long-term lease agreements: if three years ago they were largely signed for terms of one year, then now the share of three-year agreements in growing,” analysts of Cushman & Wakefield told RBC Daily.
The most eager to gain a foothold in pedestrian zones are entrepreneurs engaged in souvenir sales and restaurateurs. Moscow’s riverbank areas could soon become pedestrian zones: architects are developing a concept to reorganize these areas, according to the city’s Committee for Investment Project Support and Participatory Construction Oversight. The embankment zones will be partially freed of automotive transport and some areas could be redeveloped into territories intended exclusively for pedestrians. The total area of the zones being re-conceptualized is more than 10,000 hectares.
ROMANOV ALLEY
A bright example of the establishment of pedestrian areas in the center of Moscow is the Romanov Alley project, which entails the creation of a pedestrian street in place of dilapidated buildings.
Romanov Alley is a pedestrian zone in Moscow’s old center situated between Mokhovaya Street and Romanov Pereulok only 500 meters from the Kremlin walls. The project was developed by the Luxembourg-based investor Moscow Construction and Development. The general designer and general contractor is RD Group (part of RD Group). Romanov Alley will become a unique gastronomic street: it will host restaurants offering European cuisine, eateries, meat shops, wine and chocolate boutiques and kitchen supply stores.