The future of the Parus business center is in doubt
One of the most resonant news in the commercial real estate sector is the change of ownership of the Parus business center in the capital. This time the new owner of the skyscraper is Maxim Krippa, a Ukrainian businessman, whose assets are mainly related to cyber sports. In this connection, questions arose: what is the future of Parus, will it remain a business center or will it turn into a cybersports hub?
Where did it all start?
Parus Business Center officially opened its doors to tenants back in 2007 and at that time was the tallest building in Kiev, towering at 149.5 meters, 133.1 of which came from 33 floors and another 16.4 m. - antenna on the roof of the building. The idea to build the skyscraper and its realization belong to businessman Vagif Aliyev, who owns “Mandarin Plaza”. The construction of the building started in 2004 and for three years only once stopped for 6 days due to severe frosts. There has never been another day of downtime. Ukrainian residential real estate developers should take an example.
The original plan was to call the business center Elsburg Plaza, but as the building rose above the city, it was decided to call it Parus.
The status of the tallest building in Kiev "Parus" held until 2010, then the business center "Gulliver" and residential complex "Klovsky" moved it from the place of the leader.
A minute of fun math
The construction of Parus cost Vagif Aliyev 500 million hryvnias. Even before the building was commissioned, Dmytro Firtash became a co-owner of the business center with a 55% stake, for which, according to market participants' calculations, he paid Aliyev 500-560 million US dollars. At the time, this amount was a record for the commercial real estate market.
In 2016, Mr. Firtash needed money to finance his other assets, so it was decided to do the following - Dmitry Firtash transferred his share to Vagif Aliyev, in return the latter undertook to repay more than $50 million of debt of the company owned by Firtash.
In 2018, Vagif Aliyev decided to sell the business center, but due to the size of the building, the offer to sell it did not meet an active response among investors.
In 2019, the buyer was found and after negotiations, in 2020 Vadim Stolar became the owner of “Parus”. The price on which the seller and the buyer agreed was not reported, but according to experts it could be 100-150 million dollars.
In 2022, Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine begins and the 33-storey high glass building goes from being an asset to a liability. It is logical that after Ukraine reopens the state register of real estate rights (it had been closed for several months due to the full-scale invasion), the business center is again put up for sale.
In 2023, the Antimonopoly Committee published on its website authorization to acquire Sail by OLA FAIN, whose ultimate beneficiary is Maxim Krippa.
The amount of the deal was not made public, but according to the same experts, it could be between 80 and 100 million dollars.
Who is Maxim Krippa?
Maxim Krippa is a Ukrainian businessman whose sphere of interest is innovation and cybersports. He became the talk of the town after he bought one of the most famous and successful cybersports clubs - NAVI (also called Natus Vincere, which means “Born to Win” in Latin). Maxim Krippa also owns Maincast studio, which broadcasts cybersports events, and GSC Game World, which created S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. - a first-person shooter set in the location of Chernobyl.
After the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, all of the above-mentioned organizations, by order of their owner Maxim Krippa, stopped cooperating with Russian partners and took additional obligations to help the AFU and victims of Russian aggression in any way they could: Maincast studio gave up Russian-language rights to ESL tournaments and focused on the development of Ukrainian-language broadcasts; NAVI club fired the Russian casts of PUBG Mobile and Mobile Legends; Born to Win started participating in charity tournaments in order to raise funds for various organizations; and NAVI club started participating in charity tournaments to raise funds for the victims of Russian aggression.
Will the business center “Parus” turn into a cyber sports hub under the management of Maxim Krippa?
Based on the fact that after the purchase of the cybersports organization NAVI, Maxim Krippa built a high-tech office with gaming penthouses for club members, and the staff of the organization increased 4 times, it is not excluded that Parus can be transformed into a super-modern center for the development of cybersports. But this is only speculation, there are no official statements about Maxim Krippa's plans to adapt “Parus” for cybersport. At the moment it is only known about the local repair of the business center, which the building needed to meet modern safety requirements.
In lieu of an epilogue.
Regardless of whether Parus will continue its existence as a business center or will turn into a cybersports hub, the important thing is that it will remain a center of attraction for finance, possibly foreign investment and, as a result, will be a source of replenishment of the Ukrainian treasury through the payment of taxes, and now it is more important than ever.