Trade not needed: tenants exit mall turned Badenland thermal resort

Tenants of commercial premises in the Komsomoll shopping center must leave soon as the mall is being rebuilt into a thermal complex. However, some organizations operating there will remain in place. The founder of Baden Family, which owns the facility, explained what will happen next with the building and answered questions about the project.

When will construction be finished

On January 24, the first phase of the Badenland thermal resort was launched in Komsomoll, featuring a huge pool of 1200 square meters and several saunas. In two months, an outdoor pool will open here.

Over the next year and a half, by July 2027, the second and third phases are planned to be completed. The already finished part will be separated from the area where construction work will continue.

The building«s exterior will also change. Badenland will have a glass facade.

What will happen to the tenants

Residents of neighboring houses who shopped at Komsomoll wondered about the fate of the tenants. Evgeny Kononov, owner of Baden Family, said that all stores will have to close. Only the fitness club, bowling alley, and some other entertainment venues from the former occupants of Komsomoll will remain.

“Trade is not needed here; it doesn«t fit the format of entertainment and leisure. Such tenants must leave the shopping center soon. But bowling, fitness, the children»s park «TutoKruto»—these are all formats of entertainment and leisure, they will stay. We are currently in negotiations with them,” the businessman said.

According to him, a separate passage will be made for fitness club clients so they don«t have to walk through the “wet zone.”

Previously, there were plans to open a family restaurant «Masha and the Bear» in Badenland, replacing the closed branch in «Makarovsky.» But plans have changed—now the business owner says it might be a restaurant with a different name.

“This is a complicated issue for us because we closed the restaurant in «Makarovsky»: it didn«t work out for various reasons. There are certain questions with the brand itself, I»m not ready to comment on that and I don«t have the right to. I can definitely say that there will be a family-format restaurant with entertainment for children and play areas, but under what name, I»m not ready to say yet,” answered Evgeny Kononov.

Will the building withstand the load

The building was originally constructed as a shopping center and was not adapted for water attractions. Yekaterinburg has already had issues with pools in shopping and business centers. For example, in 2016, there was a leak in the pool on the 19th floor of the Panorama Business Center, and earlier something similar happened with «Alatyr.»

To prevent this from happening again, builders at Komsomoll had to strengthen the load-bearing structures, columns, and beams.

A lot of attention had to be paid to ventilation to create a temperature-humidity regime in the building that wouldn«t harm the entire structure. Alone, 30 million rubles (about $333,000 at current rates) were spent on this.

Overall, 1.2 billion rubles (about $13.3 million at current rates) have already been spent on turning the shopping center into a leisure destination (that is, 120 thousand rubles per square meter), and the planned investment for the reconstruction of the entire building is 4 billion rubles (about $44.4 million at current rates).

Why Badenland opened a month later

Initially, the first phase of the thermal complex was promised for December 25, but in the end, Badenland started accepting guests a month later. Some Yekaterinburg residents even wrote negative reviews to the company due to the delay.

“Came on January 1, everything closed. No notice, no schedule, no information online. Unlikely to go there next time with such «wonderful» service,” wrote Vladimir in reviews on 2GIS.

The entrepreneur explained why the opening was postponed:

“There were construction shortcomings. We fixed them over these three weeks, and after that received permission for launch. Legally, we weren«t ready. Nevertheless, now we are happy that Badenland can fully accept guests.”

Earlier, we published a photo report from the opening of Badenland and showed what it looks like inside.

Recall that in 2024, another thermal complex opened in Yekaterinburg—«Yuga.» It also has an outdoor pool on its territory.

And also in Yekaterinburg, there is an unusual year-round pool that operates on the roof of the Vysotsky skyscraper.