Not long, only ten or even five years ago, would you imagine that a local NGO, raising an equity capital of 60 million US Dollars, would make a real-estate investment abroad? I don’t know what you would think, but I could never imagine! We were first surprised when, in May 2002, TOBTIM International Trade Centres Inc. ?a partnership of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchange of Turkey (TOBB) and the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly (TIM)? invited us to act as their consultant. When we were invited to a meeting and met with the Board members, who despite being senior and prominent names of the business world, worked with an amateur passion, our surprise turned into a confidence and enthusiasm that we shared with them.
It was their objective that excited them so much: to create new market opportunities for the small and medium size Turkish exporters, and provide them competitive advantage for direct and on-site marketing in international markets.
The Russian Federation, with a 150 million population, 450 billion US Dollar GNP, $8,000 per capita of which 85% is per consumption, is not only the key country in the region, but as well one of the biggest trade partners of Turkey with a 20 billion US Dollar trade volume. TOBTIM had decided to realise their first mission in Russia, close to Kremlin in the heart of Moscow, the city that steers 60% of this huge economy. The initial target was the right one, and so was the timing. It was a right decision to be proactive in this country that was coming out of a heavy economical crisis and act sooner than the investors of the developed countries.
When we joined the project team, the bidding process for the construction was already concluded and assigned to a contractor for a turn-key fixed fee over US Dollars, including design and application, and with a design and construction completion period of 18 months ?an incredible target in a country like the Russian Federation.
Within this period, an approximately 40,000 m2 building with three levels 10m below the underground water level would be constructed, right beside the Moscow canal, by a Turkish contractor in a foreign country,... The 18 month construction period also included two winter seasons. Furthermore, approximately one third of the plot on which the building would based without expansion joint, would be handed over after the legal expropriation by the Russian authorities, as the construction of the other section of the building continued....
When the time-meter for the 18 months started running, the only thing in hand was the conceptual architectural design with an unspecified project mix, and no operation and marketing teams’ opinion… The architects of the Russian State Engineering Institution Mosproekt-2 would, for the first time, prepare a design for a such a high-tech building and a shopping mall at international standards.... The occupational bureaucracy, the national standards and approval procedures in Russia were challenging even for the most experienced local developers, let alone a foreign NGO..... The zoning and construction regulations of the city of Moscow required the approval of the proprietors of the neighbouring plots for all projects that were to be approved by the legal authorities..... Because there was no development design in hand, the technical specifications of the project were not sufficiently defined in the turn-key construction agreement that was already signed....Since the building was a commercial real estate development project, not only its construction, but also its marketing and management aspects were of importance, however no firms were yet engaged at this stage of project designing.... The estimated monthly rental income was one million US Dollars, the monthly penalty fee the Contractor was liable in case of delay was one hundred thousand US Dollars.... The Investor was an NGO, a professional association ?so nobody should expect that they employed a professional team with the experience to manage a commercial real estate project!
As a result, all these inconveniences and the contradictions in the already signed Contractor agreement as well, sufficed to render the task a ball of problems. Conflict was inevitable! It was under these conditions that the Board members of TOBTIM, the experienced businessmen, made the decision of developing an approach to act as the Contractor’s ‘partner’ for both risks and rewards, without modifying the terms of the contract. And the key to open the door to the execution of this decision was an independent, reliable technical consultant that would act as almost an expert-arbitrator in their relationship and decisions. Proje Yonetim Consulting, Inc. started its duty under these conditions, as an organization that met the criteria and whom all stakeholders trusted. The team of project manager, architect, structural, mechanical and electrical consultants first prepared the Design Criteria and Specifications at Russian standards, taking into consideration the management and marketing conditions while preserving the Contractor and Designer agreement terms as well as the duration, cost and quality standards, in the manner the Russian architects and engineers required as a condition for initiating the project. Later the team prepared the project mix, which increased the rentable area of the project and thus raised its rental value by approximately 20%, and guided the interior improvements. The project mix was also confirmed by the marketing consultancy firm that was later selected. This enabled the construction of a 600-seat cinema and six fast-food units on the third floor, which initially was deemed difficult to attract visitors, and an ‘anchor’ supermarket on the underground level. The uneven dimensions of the plot had forced long corridors between different levels. The new plan also allowed us to enrich these corridors by visually connecting them with atriums, as well as to design an outdoor courtyard as the vista/focus point of the mall together with the escalators.
Agreement was reached on the project’s scope and definitions and work started. Before initiating the construction work, an orientation and project management training was given to the Investor’s resident team of five engineers and architects. The web-based project management system enabled the collaboration of all stakeholders, by allowing them to monitor the construction site activities through a live camera, as well as by allowing them to share all project documents. A Project Quality Handbook was prepared according to ISO-9001:2000 Quality System and the staff were thus trained on quality systems.
The positive and motivating environment, which these aspects created on both the staff and Employer’s management team, as well as on other stakeholders, led the Board to take an unusual decision only two or three months after we started our work as the consultant. This decision, at the same time, pointed at the fact that there were changes in some understandings coming up in the sector: the consultant firm would from now on work as the strategic partner of the Employer and serve as its Project Management Department. With this decision, all decisions made during the execution on behalf of the Employer were covered by the Consultant’s professional liability insurance.
I don’t know whether this structure would be successful under any conditions; however, the major success factor in our story, doubtlessly, is that the right persons came together at the right time. All members of the team, from the company’s top management to the technical staff, from the Turkish staff to the Russian, worked with a mutual passion and confidence, harmonious as if they’ve been working together for years.
The choice of the material, that was to be used for the insulation of the diaphragm walls and raft foundations under high water pressure 12 m below the ground level, was the first test of the team that had come together very recently: a careful study of the newly developed materials and techniques led our team to specify and use the method that would also eliminate the risks of the potential mistakes of the local Contractor, who would be applying this kind of a work for the first time in the Russian Federation. Nevertheless, even if any one of the three shifts that worked under the -20oC cold of the Russian winter made any insulation mistakes, we were confident that we would be able to recover these when we arrive at the ground level and the discharge pumps silence. We were also confident that we would easily solve any possible mistakes, because we had dry-lock sealed the insulation membrane as 8.00x8.00 m independent modular units, and with a technique that enabled injection of special chemicals into these separated units.
Our duty was not merely to construct a new building. We were also responsible of restoring two 150-years old mansions that connected to the new building and integrate these into the premises. Part of the materials, which were used in the construction of these mansions were mounted by using the hand-crafted techniques of their period, while some other materials were mounted by using the state-of-the-art technologies hidden behind their original elements. In this work, we found the opportunity to closely witness how much the Russians bond with and value their historical and cultural treasures. Although our work was interrupted, we greatly admired the way the 20 young archaeologists manually studied the site with sieves during the excavation for the new construction. Moscow, after all, was a 900-year old city. And seeing them work, we Turks, thinking of how we could not own our cities of thousands of years of history... we felt sorry.
As the project team, other than the Turkish Contractor and the Turkish Consultant, gradually developed with the participation of experts of different nationalities and geographies, i.e. the Russian design team, American management team, British quality audit team, our group turned into a perfect cultural mosaic.
Our web-based collaboration platform catered to solve all communication difficulties of the team members who were working in different geographies and different time zones. When the stakeholders were travelling abroad, they could easily follow the construction site activities online, and access the daily, weekly, and monthly progress reports, and as well approve any documents that reached them in no time. In time, it was not only the Employer that benefited from this system, but also the Contractor’s top executives exploited this web-based system to follow the work of their own team with a different viewpoint.
Finally, the project was completed and ready to be opened as a Centre to attract the demands of not only the Turkish exporters and entrepreneurs but also of local retailers and entrepreneurs that work on international basis. Despite a short delay that was due to the interior design works of the tenants and a legal dispute with the owner of the plot that blocked the main entrance, the Centre was opened to the visits of the people of Moscow by the Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoðan on 12 January 2005 as it was agreed during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Turkey, with the participation of nearly 4,000 guests including the Turkish delegation of ministers, MPS, businessmen, and NGO representatives.
This is the story of the building that attracted high attention of both the Turkish and Russian press with its recent opening. Moscow’s First Deputy Mayor Vladimir Resin, in his speech at the opening ceremony, applauded the widespread success of the Turkish representatives of the construction sector in the Russian Federation, and invited TOBTIM to construct a new wholesalers’ compound in Moscow. Mr. Resin’s appreciating words, however, could not draw much attention in the chaotic environment of the ceremony with thousands of guests.
Haluk DOÐANÇAY
Proje Yönetim Consulting, Inc.
ARKADIA PROJECT IDENTITY
Construction Area: 40,000 m2
Gross Leasable Area: 18,000 m2
Number of Stores: 55
Office Area: 8,000 m2
Underground Parking Units: 220 vehicles
Construction Start Date: 22.05.2002
Construction End Date: 30.03.2004
Opening Date: 12.01.2005
Architects and Engineers: MosProekt-2
Main Contractor: Ekinciler Ýnþaat ve Ticaret A.Þ.
Project Management Consultants: Proje Yonetim A.Þ.
State Construction Audit: RPSi
Interior Decoration Design for Shopping Areas: INAS Mimarlýk A.Þ.
Landscaping Design: Öncüoðlu Mimarlýk Ltd.
Marketing: Cushman&Wakefield and Healey&Baker
Facility Management: Stiles&Riabokobylko
Major Tenants: RamStore, Paradise, Sbarro, Colins, Paþabahçe, Efes, Storks, Ramsey, Hatemoðlu, Lady Collection, CafeTune, Nikken, Catherine Leman, Ion, KebabHouse etc.
SOME SUB-CONTRACTORS FOR THE EXECUTION OF WORK
M+E Contractor: Unitermak Ltd.
Lifts and Escalators: OTIS
Transformer: Schneider
HVAC System: Carrier
Building Automation: Honeywell
Aluminium Façade: Çuhadaroðlu / Etalon
Insulated Glass Panels and Planar Glass Façade: Þiþe Cam / LamGlass
Terracotta Exterior Cladding: Creaton A.G.
Ceramics: Vitra
Insulation: Sika A.G.
|
