Gazprom Auctions Seven-Story Office in Chelyabinsk Center

The world«s largest gas company, Gazprom, has put an office building in central Chelyabinsk up for sale. The starting price is 715 million rubles (about $7.8 million at current rates), and the auction is scheduled for February 20. We look into why the gas giant is divesting real estate, how widespread the sale of »national heritage« is, and who might be interested in such a property.

What is being sold

A Gazprom subsidiary, Gazprom Mezhregiongaz LLC, has announced an auction for the sale of a building at 42a Lenin Avenue in Chelyabinsk. The total area of the seven-story (one underground) property is 6,401.2 square meters. The starting price is 715,133,202 rubles (about $7.8 million at current rates). The lot is listed on Gazprombank«s electronic trading platform.

The open auction is being conducted using a combined scheme — with a step-by-step increase in the starting price, and if there are no bids from participants to raise the price, then with a further step-by-step decrease in the starting price. At the same time, a minimum price limit has been set — no more than 10% down, to 643.6 million rubles (including VAT, about $7.0 million at current rates). Bids are accepted until February 18, and the auction is scheduled for February 20.

Gazprom Mezhregiongaz LLC was established in 1996. The holding manages regional gas and energy sales companies of PJSC Gazprom. The founder is PJSC Gazprom, and the general director is Sergei Gustov. According to the Rusprofile service, in 2024 the company«s official revenue amounted to 1.4 trillion rubles, with a net loss of 39 billion rubles (about $424 million at current rates).

We asked the owner about the reasons for selling the office real estate in Chelyabinsk.

«We are selling the building due to the lack of need for its use by companies of the Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Group,» the property and corporate relations department of Gazprom Mezhregiongaz LLC told 74.RU.

It is worth noting that the building is leased by Novatek-Chelyabinsk, a subsidiary of the largest independent gas producer, PJSC Novatek. According to 74.RU, the lease agreement is indefinite. Novatek-Chelyabinsk declined to comment on how the change of ownership would affect the tenant.

«It is a way to free up capital»

Such properties, especially with an existing anchor tenant, are typically of interest to local investors as a ready-made asset with predictable cash flow, according to NF GROUP partner Marina Malakhatko.

«The current tenant may also show separate interest, for whom purchasing the building could be a logical step in terms of long-term cost fixation and control over a key office asset,» Marina Malakhatko noted.

In general, Gazprom is actively working with its real estate portfolio — both in capitals and in regions. This includes not only sales but also acquisitions of assets for operational and strategic tasks, added the NF GROUP expert.

«The building is located in the very center of the city, the location is convenient — high traffic and transport accessibility. It will be of interest to a large company that needs a sales office in the center. It could occupy the entire building or lease part of the premises to firms,» suggested mortgage broker and realtor Kirill Pavlov. «At the same time, the buyer can immediately count on acquiring a rental business. Especially since there is a ready, solvent tenant.»

A change of ownership does not terminate a previously concluded lease agreement, the realtor added.

The sale of the seven-story Gazprom Mezhregiongaz building in central Chelyabinsk on Lenin Avenue fits into a broader trend of selling non-core real estate within the Gazprom group, experts indicated.

«This is not a one-off deal but a systematic asset divestment program that has been implemented for several years and covers both regions and major cities. Administrative and office buildings, production bases, sanatorium-resort facilities, and other commercial real estate owned by subsidiary and dependent structures of the holding regularly appear on open auctions,» said Yaroslav Kabakov, strategy director at Finam Investment Company (Finam). «In recent years, this process has accelerated noticeably against the backdrop of deteriorating financial indicators of the gas giant, caused by a reduction in export supplies, as well as within the framework of cost optimization and concentration of resources on core business. An additional factor is management restructuring and reduction of excess office space, which makes part of the real estate economically inexpedient for further ownership.»

According to Yaroslav Kabakov, the specific property in Chelyabinsk looks like a typical example of such a «non-core» asset: a large administrative building in the city center, a significant part of which is occupied by an anchor tenant — Novatek-Chelyabinsk. This increases its investment attractiveness and allows the property to be considered not only as an office for own placement but also as a ready rental business.

«The potential circle of buyers is quite wide — from regional and federal investors in commercial real estate to large companies that want to establish themselves in a central location, as well as developers considering repurposing into a multifunctional office center, educational or medical cluster, or a hotel with business infrastructure,» assessed the Finam expert.

Overall, for Gazprom, selling such properties is a way to free up capital and reduce the burden on the balance sheet, while for the commercial real estate market in regions, it is a rare opportunity to acquire a large, quality asset in a prestigious location with already formed demand, concluded Yaroslav Kabakov.

How Gazprom is divesting assets

Gazprom began actively selling non-core assets two years ago, after a record loss in its history. Recall that due to a twofold drop in gas sales to Europe, the corporation ended 2023 for the first time with a net loss of 629 billion rubles ($6.9 billion). Whereas a year earlier, Gazprom had made a net profit of 1.2 trillion rubles ($12.5 billion).

In spring 2024, the Russian corporation announced that, due to the completion of the relocation of companies to St. Petersburg (the head office is now in the Lakhta Center), a complex of real estate in Moscow would be sold. Gazprom also announced the sale of 14 sanatoriums, boarding houses, hotels, houses and recreation bases, sanatoriums in Moscow, Sochi, Anapa, Nadym, Ukhta, Samara, Saratov, Astrakhan regions, Armenia and Belarus. According to the corporation«s annual report, in 2024 Gazprom sold real estate worth 20 billion rubles (about $217 million at current rates). The largest deal was the sale of the educational institution »Gazprom School« in Moscow for 5.04 billion rubles (about $55 million at current rates).

In 2025, in addition to office and production facilities, seven more sanatorium-resort complexes and recreation bases in different regions of Russia were put up for sale. At the end of December 2025, the Board of Directors of PJSC Gazprom approved a list of the company«s non-core assets subject to divestment. It contains 139 items: shares of enterprises, real estate, transport and equipment.

In the new year, in the Chelyabinsk region, Gazprom plans to sell the «Goluboy Ogonyok» (Blue Light) recreation base on Lake Sugoyak (starting price: 7.5 million rubles, about $82,000 at current rates), a recreation base in the village of Pechenkino, Yetkulsky District (starting price: 13.8 million rubles, about $150,000 at current rates), and a land plot of 5,206.48 square meters on Ilmenskaya Street in Chelyabinsk (price not set).