25 May 2004 06:12
St. Pete Finalizes Historic Buildings Sell-Off List
ST. PETERSBURG -- St. Petersburg City Hall has presented a list of 25 historic buildings that it wants to privatize,
and 17 that are out of bounds for investors.
The privatization list, drawn up by the St. Petersburg Committee for the State Inspection and Protection of
Historical Monuments, or KGIOP, includes the Bezborodko dacha on Sverdlovskaya Naberezhnaya, Sheremetyev's mansion
on Shpalernaya Ulitsa, and Yulia Samoilova's palace and park at Pavlovsk.
"These are the buildings and palaces that are in the worst shape," KGIOP head Vera Dementyeva said last
week in an interview. "They won't last more than five years if they aren't repaired."
Properties have also been listed that City Hall considers to have special value for the cultural heritage of Russia
and will thus not be subject to privatization. Among those buildings are the State Hermitage Museum, Peterhof, the
palace and park museum at Tsarskoye Selo, St. Petersburg State University, and the Pulkovo Observatory.
Governor Valentina Matviyenko proposed privatizing the historic buildings last month. The proposal was not new and
was seen by some as favoring LUKoil, which is restoring the Stieglitz palace and is to receive 60 sites for gas stations
from the city without tenders.
Privatizing St. Pete
The following are selected sites that may be privatized first:
01. Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich's palace (122 Naberezhnaya Reki Moiki) - has an investor.
02. Vyazemsky estate (Osinovaya Roshcha) - has an investor.
03. Sobstvennaya dacha palace and park ensemble (84 Sobstvenny Prospekt, Petrodvorets).
04. Yusupov's dacha with gardener's house, Pushkin - has an investor.
05. Samoilova's dacha and park, Pavlovsk.
06. Bezborodko's dacha, 40 Sverdlovskaya Naberezhnaya.
07. Gostiny Dvor, Kronstadt.
08. Officers' meeting hall (6 Ispolkomovskaya Ulitsa, Zelenogorsk).
09. Lansky estate (4 Prospekt Engelsa).
10. Dacha Vazhevskoi (12 Ulitsa Andreyeva).
11. Benoit's dacha (17 Tikhoretsky Prospekt).
12. Fort Totleben, Kronstadt.
Dementyeva said foreigners will be allowed to participate in tenders for the privatization of historic buildings.
Descendants of families who owned the buildings before the Bolsheviks nationalized them will also be able to take part
in the tenders, but will be treated no differently from other bidders, she added.
"The privatizations won't be an avalanche; they will have an individual character," she said.
The privatization tenders will not be able to take place until the State Duma passes an amendment to the federal law
on the control of property. The amendment will sort out which authority owns state property; the federal or municipal
government, or one of the 89 administrative regions.
"The main objective of that law will be to define who owns this or that building, and who has the right to sell
it," Dementyeva said.
She expected it might take up to half a year for the Duma to consider the amendment.
St. Petersburg has about 7,500 historic buildings, most of which have never had a thorough restoration, she said.
"Almost all these buildings need urgent repairs," Dementyeva said. "Unfortunately, the state
can't afford to do them."
In the last few years, about 120 of the city's historical monuments have been privatized in one way or another,
including several buildings at Apraksin Dvor, she said.
"That was hidden privatization," Dementyeva said.
The state and city's task will be to identify the best owners for historic buildings. "That's why we
will have tenders," she said.
New owners will be obliged to renovate a building, keep it in good condition, and also let the public view the
building occasionally. Bidders for the tenders will be required to pay the full value of any historic building, minus
what they pledge to spend on repairs.
"Part of the proceeds from selling the buildings will be used to restore other dilapidated historic
buildings," she said.
On the list of the first 25 buildings to be privatized, there are six buildings where investors have already started
renovations. Those investors will be favored in tenders for privatization of those buildings, she said.
Irina Antonova, general director of Moscow's Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, last week spoke against the
privatization of historic properties, Interfax reported.
"It implies not just the privatization of the buildings, but everything that is inside, including museums,"
she said.
"But who are these privatizers? Do they have knowledge of museum work?" she asked.
But Hermitage director Mikhail Piotrovsky said privatization is essential to "save Russia's cultural
heritage," the report noted.
.TX-..**********************************************
[The Moscow Times] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
