The Guild of Property Managers and Developers (GMD) is a traditional participant of Expo Real fairs in Munich, but it was the first time that GMD was responsible for the program of events at the stand of St. Petersburg. The GMD group included Moscow and St. Petersburg companies, but themes of most events were domineered by the priority topics of St. Petersburg. At Expo Real the Northern Capital of Russia was represented by a strong team of authorities (committees) responsible for urban development and construction.

5 October

The ceremony of St. Petersburg stand opening gathered a lot of Russian and international friends and partners of the city and GMD. They could watch the opening, but had no chance of hearing the speeches – the sound system failed, and our audio space was invaded by speeches coming from loudspeakers of neighboring stands.

So it was with some anxiety that we were preparing for the first event of the program, Conference “Future of St. Petersburg Shaping out Today”. This time there were no technical hindrances to information transfer and views sharing between speakers and the audience. The panel featured such authoritative and competent persons as Vyachelav Semenenko, GMD President, Chairman of SPb Committee for Construction, Juoso Hietanen, General Director of NCC Real Estate, Charles Voss, General Director of Aberdeen Property Investors St. Petersburg, Alexander Olkhovsky, GMD Vice-President, VTB Vice-President and Karina Chichkanova, Salans St. Petersburg, partner. The conference set the tune for further discussions and identified subjects, which were treated in the events of the next day, specifically: challenges of high-priority projects of St. Petersburg, international investment into the urban economy, quality standards and technologies important for efficient development.



6 October

The morning started with Roundtable discussion of CEPI-IVD-GMD “Strategy for managing commercial and housing property at the time of crisis’ moderated by Andrey Lushnikov, GMD Chairman of the Committee for facility management. Valuable contribution into the discussion was made by Timo Multanen, CEPI President, Frans A.J. Burgering, CEPI Past President, Xavier Ortegat, CEPI Executive Director, Claudine Speltz, CEAB President, Jan Boruvka EPAG President and Hans Langemaack, IVD Managing Director. The discussion proved that at crisis time higher professionalism and quality of services is the most sure way to success; it confirmed the need of Russian management companies for approximation of their quality standards to those of European counterparts. As a follow-up of the discussion Moscow management companies-GMD members visited the IVD event. They are planning to form a stakeholder group for introducing EU (CEPI) management standards into Russian practice.

The ExpoReal session of Investors Club was definitely the central event of the day. Differently from previous IC events an easy format of “lounge discussion” was announced for it. The session was smoothly moderated by Andreas Schiller, CEO of Investment Insight and Editor-in-Chief Russia of “Property Investor Europe”. The discussion started as a general talk on St. Petersburg investment potential, its speakers were Thomas Roeber, Europolis Real Estate Asset Management, Bill Kistler, ULI President EMEA/India and Thomas Beyerle, DEGI – Aberdeen Property Investors Vyachelav Semenenko, Chairman of SPb Committee for Construction, turned it to concrete subject by asking: What exactly the city is missing for attracting Western investors? What can the government do to make investors feel safe and show activity in St. Petersburg? The challenge of answering tough questions was taken by Alexander Bosak, Europolis Senior Vice President, responsible fore the projects in the city. Presentation of Dostoyevsky hotel was made and discussed as an example of property offered by St. Petersburg today.

Master class “City Branding” continued the theme of city values to be kept in mind in urban development. It was expressively done by Prof. Bernd Hallier, Director of European Retail Institute.

TUEV Rheinland master class completed the program of big stand events. At it the Russian audience learned that thoroughly developed German standards and regulations do not complicate efficient implementation of construction and revitalization projects, on the contrary, they guarantee their high quality and timely implementation (case study of a German congress center refurbishment). The master class was delivered by Hartmut Meier Escherich , TUEV Rheinland. It will hopefully make a start for an educational program for Russian companies, which will be prepared by TUEV Rheinland, GMD and St. Petersburg Committee for Construction. Large development projects faced by St. Petersburg will need valid quality standards, procedures and techniques for quality management.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed between TUEV Rheinland- Russia and SPb Committee for Construction after the master class. It sets a basis for future joint activities.

Along with announced public events for Russian and international professionals the stand of St. Petersburg provided a convenient venue for many bilateral meetings. Andrey Stepanenko, Head of the Property Fund of St. Petersburg and Alexander Chuprakov, head of St. Petersburg Authority for Valuation and Inventory had several sessions of talks with their counterparts from Bavarian ministry, governments of Cologne and Berlin.

7 October

The site visit to Dornach (located close to Messe Munich) was a great addition to ExpoReal program. There the GMD group saw an example of an office center developed at the time recession. The“Concor” project , a complete refurbishment of a building constructed in 1976, was presented by its owners – Dr. Bertold Wild (Muenchner Grund Immobilien), Mr. Karl Bier, Chairman of the Management Board of UBM AG , and Mr. Fritz Dreier, Advisor to Muenchner Grund and UBM. The funds, which own the new property, are sure that it will be commercially successful, and will easily find good tenants. In his presentation Dr. Wild gave a good idea of the German “pillars” of tenant-winning and cost-efficient property:

- good accessibility by public transport from the city center,

- location and environment, which can offer new advantages,

- reasonable rent rates,

- functional design with built-in concept of sustainability and energy efficiency.

After the interesting visit and discussions the GMD group departed for a well-deserved non-business sightseeing tour to Starnberger See



Expo Real, Munich has a great potential for opening new perspectives and starting new projects.

The GMD program would not be so rich and diverse without the support provided by our German partners:

Andreas Schiller. CEO of “Investment Insight” and Editor in Chief Russia of “Property Investor Europe” - Our strategic partner in Germany

Hartmut Meier-Escherich, Key-Account Manager, TUEV Rheinland Industrie Service, KAM, branch real estate and construction

We would like to express our gratitude and appreciation to German authorities and professionals who had productive meetings with Russian counterparts

Holger Lippmann, CEO of Liegenschaftsfonds Berlin (Berlin Property Fund)

Augsut Spier, Head of CAD-department, Staatliches Hochbauamt Muenchen II, Bayerische Bauverwaltung (Authority of Bavaria State properties)

Bernd Streitberger, Commissioner for city development, planning and building, City of Cologne

Brigitte Bourscheidt, Head of property management, authority for real estate and property North Rhine-Westfalia BLB-NRW.

Prof. Hermann J. Thomann, CEO TUEV Rheinland Consulting

Karl-Friedrich Lamm, CEO TUEV Rheinland Immobilien, corporate real estate management, property management

Anastasia Ostretsova, our ‘more than interpreter’ 

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