Foster’s Moscow masterplan thrown into doubt by court ruling

Sir Norman Foster’s plans for a £415m prime central Moscow development has suffered a setback following a Russian court ruling on 31 March, according to The Moscow Times. Last week, the Moscow Arbitration Appeal Court nullified contractual agreements made between the Moscow city authorities and ST Development, which had been awarded the rights to develop the Foster-designed, 400,000 sq m Zaryadye hotel complex on the site of the Rossiya hotel. The contracts, which were won by tender in 2004, included the demolition of the Rossiya, the development of the new Zaryadye hotel complex and the transfer of a 51% stake in the property to ST Development. However, in 2006, another bidder successfully challenged the tenders and the arbitration appeal court refused to overturn the lower court’s decision to declare the tender illegal project. After the judgment, a spokesperson for ST Development told The Moscow Times: “We are losing time and money, and we are missing our deadline. We have already invested more than $200m in this project, and now we cannot proceed because of the court’s decision.” He added: “We have no plans to relinquish the project. We will appeal… right to the country’s highest court.”