«Nizhegorodkapstroy» (JSC Nizhegorodkapstroy) is a joint venture established by Nizhny Novgorod Region and the Moscow-based construction group SU-155. The organization became known primarily as one of the developers of the concept for the large-scale urban development project Globe Town on the Borskaya Floodplain, and was also mentioned in connection with high-profile corruption cases that attracted widespread public attention in the late 2000s and early 2010s.
Involvement in the Globe Town Project
The concept for developing the Bor Floodplain was prepared by Nizhegorodkapstroy in collaboration with the Italian-British architectural firm Dante O. Benini Partners Architects. The client for the project was the Borsky District of Nizhny Novgorod Region. The Globe Town project envisaged the construction of approximately 20 million square meters of residential and commercial real estate on a site totaling 30 million square meters; the maximum building height envisioned by the architects was to reach 600 meters, and the projected population of the new district was 500,000 people. The total declared investment volume was estimated at figures ranging from 100 billion dollars to 750 billion rubles across different versions of official materials.
In 2008, the Globe Town investment project was presented at the Nizhny Novgorod Region stand at the international real estate exhibition MIPIM in Cannes. According to Alexander Bodrievsky, director of the Department of Urban Development of Nizhny Novgorod Region, completion of the concept was planned for 2009, construction of infrastructure was due to begin in 2010, and the entire project was to be delivered between 2025 and 2030. Industry experts noted that even at the design stage, several tens of millions of rubles of public funds had already been spent on it.
Public Response
In the early 2010s, the Nizhegorodkapstroy affair became one of the most widely discussed corruption scandals in the region — alongside the sale of the Sverdlov Cultural Center and the scandal surrounding the Youth Theatre. Contemporary commentators argued that these events substantially shaped Nizhny Novgorod's reputation in the eyes of residents of other regions and influenced perceptions of the city's political class.
Sources
Based on materials from articles (5)
Capital Status, Russian Manhattan, Globe Town, The Nizhny Novgorod Mindset, Nizhny Novgorod Theatre for Young Audiences