Moscow's biggest development will keep city on the map

In 2010, three of the thirteen main buildings that make up the Moscow International Business Center (MIBC) were completed, providing visual evidence of progress to a huge project that is expected to cost over $12 billion and involves a plethora of investors and development companies.

Imperia Tower, City of Capitals and the Central Core, these immense buildings are as impressive for their size as they are for their design and modern aesthetics, giving a degree of new life to the skyline of Moscow, which, although beautiful, has remained largely unchanged since the economy opened itself up to the world.

In fact, the Moscow International Business Center is one of the biggest real estate developments in the country in recent years and will reinforce the status of Moscow on the map as a major hub of investment and commercial enterprise. The profiles of the three completed buildings reveal the high-end nature of the development.

The Imperia Tower is actually two buildings, A and B, one will house office space, residential apartments, a 280-room hotel and a shopping area while Building B will be home to a world-class water park. Building B is not yet completed and, according to Moscow news reports, has been put on hold, a tangible reminder of the ever-present effects of the downturn.

The Central Core is, as the name suggests, a massive development in the centre of the 60 hectare MIBC. According to Moscow news media, it cost $300 million in total to complete and is comprised of a huge underground section as well as the 70 floors above ground. Beneath the building is the Moscow Subway stop for the MIBC as well as parking for over 2000 cars and a shopping mall.

The actual visible part of the development has three sections, a hotel that cost $55 million, a mall and entertainment center that cost upwards of $100 million and has an ice rink, a park and four divisions that reflect the seasons, while the third section is devoted to a cinema and concert hall.

The City of Capitals is a huge complex that symbolizes the might of Moscow and St Petersburg. The Moscow Tower is slightly taller than St Petersburg and is the tallest building in Europe. The towers are 73 and 62 storeys respectively and each is made up of residences and their amenities (fitness centre, recreation areas etc), as well as shopping malls, office spaces and entertainment complexes while each tower also extends six floors beneath the ground.

The City of Capitals cost $410 million to build, but amounts to 202,000 square meters of floor space, almost a quarter of a square kilometer, which is roughly an eight of the land area of the Principality of Monaco.

There are a further ten major buildings under development in the district, which is set to become the heart of the city’s investment and commercial economy, the prestige and high-end nature of the area will be reinforced once the City Hall and City Duma is completed, this complex of four 71 floor buildings will hold the entire government and assembly of Moscow, making the area the power-brokering heart of a metropolis that is home to over 10 million people and, if it were its own country, would have one of the top 20 largest economies in the world.