On January 19, a business breakfast was held at the Okhta Mall , where the head of the Administration of the Krasnogvardeysky district of St. Petersburg, representatives of business and culture operating in the district met.

The initiators of the meeting were Administration of Krasnogvardeysky district and the Finnish concern SRV, which manages the SEC "Okhta Mall". Krasnogvardeysky district is undergoing rapid redevelopment, and the purpose of the breakfast was to find common ground that will allow, by implementing joint projects, to improve the quality of life of residents of the district.

The business breakfast was attended by: the head of the administration of the Krasnogvardeysky district Evgeny Razumishkin, Executive Director of Shopping Center Management SRV in Russia Patrick Sjoberg, Head of Research at JLL Vladislav Fadeev, director of the SEC "Okhta Mall" Ekaterina Timofeeva and other representatives of business and culture.

The event was opened by Patrick Sjoberg. He urged the participants of the discussion to openly share their development plans: "Almost two years ago, the shopping and entertainment center Okhta Mall opened on the territory of Krasnogvardeysky district. During this period, the company SRV managed to achieve a lot: on the territory of the shopping center we have opened «Okhta Lab» The first cultural and educational space in St. Petersburg, located in a shopping center. On the territory of the Okhta Lab there is a branch of the Mayakovsky Library, a space for coworking and a lecture hall. At the end of 2017, we launched an educational course for children ""Okhta School". The administration of Krasnogvardeysky district is doing a lot to make the district change for the better, but changes can go faster if we all join this movement. Therefore, today, together with the Administration, we conceived a bold experiment and organized a meeting of representatives of business, art and government. Patrick also noted that the company SRV is open to dialogue and is ready to support meetings in a similar format in the future.

The head of the Administration of Krasnogvardeysky district Evgeny Razumishkin supported Mr. Sioberg in an effort to unite market participants and try to find common projects that will change the quality of life in the district. Evgeny noted the project "Okhta Lab" as a successful model of interaction between government and business, and also told about what has already been done and still needs to be done: "We do not want the Krasnogvardeysky district to be a transit area, a deferred demand area. It should become a creative and modern place where people are comfortable, where modern trends prevail, so we often pay attention to the experience of colleagues in other countries, cities and districts and, reflecting this experience, we implement various projects that, in my opinion, are quite successful. For example, we have a "Youth House" with attendance that exceeded the planned figures by 10 times. A new project «Interesting summer» has been implemented, within the framework of which various events were held throughout the district. Together with the fitness center, we launched a project to work with children suffering from cerebral palsy. The most important thing that we have managed to achieve is not only to launch new projects, but also to maintain interest in them among the residents of Krasnogvardeysky district.

Meeting with the councils of apartment buildings in the summer of 2017, we defined for ourselves the concept of "4D": house, yard, roads and leisure, on the improvements of which we will work in 2018. Summing up, I want to encourage the breakfast participants to think about what they can do to benefit both the district and their companies.

Then joined the discussionVladislav Fadeev, Head of the Research Department JLL. Vladislav spoke about the trends that prevail in the market, provided statistical data on the district. In conclusion, the head of the research department JLL noted that the Krasnogvardeysky district has a good development potential, since there are a large number of sites in the district that can be used more efficiently or given over to redevelopment.

CEO of Bonava Maria Chernaya presented the project Magnifika. Maria noted that the city lacks comfortable urban spaces where residents can relax. "Embankments are also little used, and, as a rule, these embankments do not bring aesthetic pleasure," she noted. In the project Magnifika we have a desire to make a comfortable pedestrian embankment that will become a center of attraction for the residents of the district, and in cooperation with the city we will strive to implement our plans. Maria also told about the company's plans to build a house with zero energy consumption within the framework of the Magnifika project.

Elena Akhti, Deputy Director for Development of the Mayakovsky Library, thanked the SEC Okhta Mall for the opportunity to open a branch of the library in the shopping and entertainment center: Library in «Okhta Mall» This is the first, unique experience in St. Petersburg, which proves that culture and business can harmoniously complement each other. Thanks to this experiment, we looked at the library space from a new angle and decided to launch a new project "Smart Library", which will transform the library space into an urban living room.

At the end of the event Ekaterina Timofeeva, General Director of the SEC Okhta Mall, shared plans for the development of the project in 2018: "The key task that we must solve this year is to increase the attendance of the SEC by 50% compared to the result we got in 2017. We are also completing the process of filling the shopping center with tenants and forming a restaurant offer. Also, in the first decade of this year, we will delight our visitors with new discoveries of major international brands.

Photo: srvrussia.ru