Rosatom Subsidiary Plans 42-Story Chelyabinsk Tower

A subsidiary of Rosatom, UGK-Holding, plans to build a 42-story business center in central Chelyabinsk with a helipad and premium-class offices. It is already offering room reservations, though the project has not yet been approved by city authorities. The renderings look impressive, but whether it fits the chosen location is highly doubtful. Together with the developer and experts, we examine the project«s prospects.

UGK-Holding announced plans to build a Prime-class business center (the highest existing class of office space). The skyscraper is to replace old office buildings at 5g Kirova Street. Once home to the Europe Hospitality Center office, the nondescript structures now house a children«s correctional center and small business offices.

According to the developer, the building is to become the tallest in Chelyabinsk. The total usable area is expected to exceed 70,000 square meters, with a helipad on the roof. Several floors, including underground, will be used for parking.

International experts will certify the business center for Prime class, UGK-Holding said. It is to receive green certifications such as BREEAM, Klever, and others. Construction costs are preliminarily estimated at 1 billion rubles (approximately $11 million at current rates).

“The project will be financed from UGK-Holding’s own funds, private investors, future residents of the business center, and project financing from a systemically important federal bank,” the company said.

UGK-Holding CEO Dmitry Elovsky emphasized that the cost per square meter in the business center will be the highest in the city, with no open sale—only pre-booking during pre-construction.

“More than 50% of the future business center’s space has already been booked by major federal and regional companies,” he claims. “Chelyabinsk is home to defense enterprises and large metallurgical holdings; such businesses, by status and regulations, should be in more modern buildings. Several office centers meet international standards, but there is a long waiting list for rentals.”

Anna Guseva, owner of AVG Real Estate agency, confirmed that Chelyabinsk indeed lacks Class A and above offices.

“Formally, vacancy here exceeds 5%—higher than in most million-plus cities. But large companies, including those from other regions, are looking for modern, prestigious spaces and cannot find the required volumes. They choose buildings constructed after 2020 and request large, whole blocks, which the market hardly offers. Available space is concentrated in outdated buildings,” she commented. “Rising prices confirm this: in 2025, Class A office rental rates in Chelyabinsk rose by about 30-40 percent.”

At the same time, federal companies are divesting their Chelyabinsk offices. For example, in January, a Gazprom structure put a seven-story building on Lenin Avenue up for auction.

“We are selling the building due to the lack of need for its use by Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Group companies,” holding representatives said in response to a 74.RU query about the sale.

“Potential tenants could be operators of large logistics centers, marketplaces like Ozon and Wildberries, IT companies such as Yandex or Mail.ru,” suggested investment expert Denis Stukalov. “Of course, building such a facility would be a landmark event for Chelyabinsk, but there are questions about the location.”

The site owned by UGK-Holding is about 4,000 square meters, with two kindergartens and a school in close proximity. Denis Stukalov considers such a territory very difficult to develop.

“For such a facility, the surrounding area should be more open, but here we have some kind of infill development. A business center implies heavy car traffic, but the capacity of Kirova Street on this stretch is small, with no possibility for expansion; the access road to the site is just one road, which cannot be widened,” he notes. “For Prime-class offices, even the view from the window matters—and what will be visible from the 42nd floor of this building? The site is in a lowland; when adverse weather conditions are declared, gases accumulate there, similar to the intersection of Pobedy and Rossiyskaya. And right nearby there is the industrial zone of the Chelyabinsk Electrometallurgical Plant (ChEMK), slag heaps, and so on. In the renderings, of course, we see beauty and greenery, but in reality, that’s not what’s around.”

The actual construction will be handled by the specialized developer PrimeStroy LLC. The company was registered at 5g Kirova Street in Chelyabinsk on December 17, 2025, and is 100% owned by UGK-Holding.

PrimeStroy assures that it is working on infrastructure solutions.

“Work is underway to design an additional road from Kalinina Street. We will improve access roads from Boleyko and Kirova streets,” PrimeStroy’s press service told 74.RU. “We plan to beautify the courtyards adjacent to the future office space at our own expense. We are consciously taking on this social burden; the comfort of the surrounding environment is one of the project’s components. Our business center will become a point of attraction, which will positively influence the area’s development in the future.”

However, realizing all these plans is still a long way off. The land plots for development are privately owned, but the project must successfully navigate numerous bureaucratic procedures.

“To start construction, the owner must submit to the city administration a project design that corresponds to the designated urban planning zone and has a positive expert review. After that, they must obtain a construction permit and only then begin construction,” Chelyabinsk City Hall emphasizes. “Currently, neither a project nor an application for a construction permit has been submitted to the administration.”