The Carroll Group and the Moscow City Association of Hotels have signed a joint venture agreement for a 30-storey twin-tower trade centre in Moscow.
The complex is to be built on an historic site over the 1905 Metro Station in Moscow and will provide over 200,000 sq ft of offices with conference and leisure facilities. Plans also include a 400-bedroom luxury international hotel and a residential complex to provide accommodation for those employed in the trade centre.
The agreement follows the meeting of the UK/USSR Joint Committee under the chairmanship of the Soviet Minister for Foreign Economic Relations and Lord Trefgarne, British Minister for Trade, and will form an important element in the agreed inter-governmental programme for the expansion of trade between the two countries.
Funding will come from the Carroll Group in conjunction with a syndicate of banks led by Moscow Narodny Bank and Midland Bank. Construction is expected to start next year and be completed in 1993.
In another joint venture, ITT Sheraton, PanAm, Mossoviet (the governing body of the City of Moscow) and Aeroflot announced plans for the development of hotels in Moscow at an estimated cost of $75m. The agreement, reached after 18 months of negotiation, makes ITT Sheraton the first major international hotel group to enter into such an agreement with the Soviet authorities.
ITT Corporation chairman and chief executive officer, Rand Araskog, said: “This is a classic case of a business venture matching improved East-West relations and it represents a real contribution to increased contacts.” The initial project, the six-storey 450-room world-class Sheraton Moscow Hotel, is designed for the international business traveller and will be located on Gorky Street, one mile from Red Square. ITT Sheraton expect to manage at least two hotels in Moscow.
