Construction In Kyiv
True, there continues to be a great deal of the "standard box type" apartment high-rises under construction, but most of these are being constructed by one company (several divisions) which was formerly a government institution but now is largely privatized. Since there is a lack of apartments in Kyiv and in Ukraine in general, these are the only type of construction projects are and always seem to be in Unfortunately they provide little in terms of aesthetic value or architectural beauty to the city.
True also that in the past year several office building projects such as the Horizon Tower, Millenium Plaza, Podil Center, etc, seem to have been completed. Also they do finally add some diversity to the city, but these are still few and far between. When compared to Prague, Warsaw, Moscow, Budapest, or even Sophia, the number of such projects for as great of a metropolis as Kyiv, is still very little. This tells me one ting - Kyiv still has a lot of room to grow and a huge potential for this type of expansion. Demand for high class office space is still slow, but it will come, and when it does it will do so with a bang.
True also that Kyiv is littered with "shells" of unfinished projects, particularly in the Hotel sector. Perhaps these too will eventually be completed. This is mostly due to the extreme bureaucracy and corruption that still exists in Kyiv. Many developers just give up after a while. However some of these projects (mostly those in the hands of the oligarchs, who are finally reinvesting back into Ukraine the money that they took out of Ukraine) are finally coming to fruition. Soon I believe we will see the opening of a Five Star Hotel in Kyiv. Two are vying to be first. One is a reconstruction - Hotel Ukraina and the second is a new hotel - the Intercontinental St. Sophia.
In a city that should boast at least a dozen 5 star hotels, we are finally seeing a start. Again this bodes well for the future. Several other new 5 Star hotel projects are in the planning stages but these are often tied to such large reconstruction projects that I fear that delays due to greed will be inevitable. One of these is the reconstruction of the Hotel Moskva which seems to be tied to a $235 million "center city" reconstruction. Another involves Hotel Dnipro with a similar huge "European Square" reconstruction, and a third is the President Hotel and Conference Center, which has plans for a $293 million reconstruction complex. Still another is the ill-fated "Makulan Center" next to Besarabka which has promises from an Israeli investor for a $230 million hotel, shopping and office center. However, there seems to be a jinx on this property since after 3 tries there still is no movement with the ugliest shell that exists in the center of any major European city. Several smaller ones such as the Sports Hotel are also in the planning and early execution stages.
If all of these should hit at once, the city will indeed be a beehive of activity, but until then, one can only wait and see.
One phenomenal aspect of Ukraine that I never encountered anywhere (and believe me when I tell you that I have been to over 120 countries and worked in over 40 of them on major construction projects) is the inability of Ukrainians to finish any project. Several times I took helicopter rides to areas along the Dnipro scouting for suitable land for golf courses (this is another subject) and I was amazed at the number of new "Dachas" being built along the Dnipro and in various suburban settings. It was not until I got down close to these projects that I realized that over 90% of them were shells. Brick walls, concrete slabs, and cheap roofs. It was only later that I learned that the buildings were put up on land that still had no infrastructure (no gas lines, no electric lines, no water, no sewage, no telephone, etc). Unlike in the West where we start building only after all the essential utilities are in, Ukrainians do the opposite. Also I learned that most of the structures did not have all the permits so this can mean huge delays. Then there was the question of where to get "finishing" materials. In the early days after independence, there was a tremendous shortage of finishing materials. Finishing items were costing 2 to 4 times as much as in the USA. Today, it's not so bad, but the prices are still very high.
Apparently Ukraine has no industry for "finish" construction goods such as plumbing fixtures, plumbing accessories, decorative tile, decorative ceilings, synthetic flooring products, wallpapers, hardware, tools, etc, etc. This is an area that bodes well for future development and one that Western companies should seriously look at. (Once they can make peace with the Ukrainian bureaucracy).
In conclusion one can safely assume that Ukraine has great potential for the construction and the construction materials industry if they can somehow solve the ever-present problems that plague all business in Ukraine. Chief among these are corruption, bureaucracy, high taxation, lack of incentives, and instability in the laws and legal system.