Krasnodar Krai - Development of a gambling zone "Azov-city" - Anapa

Regional authorities in Krasnodar today announced the start of a public auction for tennant rights in land plots at the Azov-City gaming zone.

Land plots ranging from two to 20 hectares are up for grabs.

The auction process will run until November 1st, after which successful bidders will have until June 1st 2009 to complete construction of their projects. The complex opens officially on July 1st 2009.

Officials said applications would be reviewed not only according to the amount offered for the site but according to the potential returns on the projects they propose to use the sites for.

One of the first investors into the zone was Austrian casion operator ASATI, which plans to build a 100,000 square-meter gaming and leisure complex.

The firm says it expects investment into the move to hit $100m, with construction scheduled for completion in June 2009

Arthur a écrit:source Marchmont - 10/06

...
The firm says it expects investment into the move to hit $100m, with construction scheduled for completion in June 2009

The Rostov Region legislative assembly has adopted amendments to a regional law on investment to grant property tax exemptions to investors in the new Azov City gambling zone,sources in the assembly say.

According to Deputy Economy Minister Valery Vakula, investors will be able to obtain property tax exemptions for their project's payback period but not longer than three years.

Marchmont was told that the new amendment "does not envisage any limits to the sum of this tax incentive".

The current property tax rate for Rostov region investors is 1.1%% and for other companies 2.2%.

Rostov Region is to invest $41.3m in construction of sewage treatment facilities as the first stage of Rostov’s prospective Azov City gambling zone project gets under way, firm Rosinzhstroy said today.

The developer has tendered for this government-run project.

CEO Vladimir Volyanik emphasized the sewage facilities would be serving nearest settlements as well.

The project concept will be drafted by January 2009, and the sewage facility is to be constructed within six months of the draft endorsement.

Moscow-based developer Asati intends to invest $200m in construction of an entertainment complex in the Azov-City gambling zone, the company said earlier today.

Yesterday the company was declared the winner with a $50,000 bid in a tender for the right of 10-year lease of a 18.5-hectare site in the Krasnodar part of the Azov-City gambling zone, president Alexander Korgan said.

Mr Kogan said that the 100,000-square-meter complex would have eleven buildings, including two 8,000-square-meter casinos, three mini-hotels, one 13-storey hotel with 2,000 guest rooms, a car center, restaurants, and conference halls.

Construction is to start no later than December 1 and be completed by July 1, 2009.

Asati uses easy-to-build air supported structures, added Mr Kogan, so construction of each building would only take three to four months.

As a result of the first auction for land lease rights in the Rostov part of the Azov-City gambling zone agreements worth $60.5m have been concluded, sources in the regional administration reported today.

The region's Minister of Economy Vladimir Bartenyev said the auction winners had been granted the right to sign ten-year land lease agreements. Out of 16 lots auctioned contracts have been signed for 14.

Mr Bartenyev also added that regional authorities were ready to earmark an additional $79.5m for construction of the engineering infrastructure required, including a substation and a power transmission line. All these facilities are to be completed by November.

Construction of casinos and other entertainment and administration facilities is to kick off not later than July 1, 2009.

Moscow’s Korston Development will invest $181m in construction of a hotel and leisure complex in the Krasnodar part of the Azov-City gambling zone, regional officials announced today.

Under plans, the complex, to be built on a 20-hectare site, will have casinos, hotels, restaurants, bars and concert halls.

Construction as a whole is to be completed by December 1, 2013. Some easy-to-build facilities, however, including a casino for 46 gambling tables and 400 slot machines and a 200-rooms hotel, are to be put into operation by July 15, 2009 already, sources in the regional administration said.

The Azov gambling zone tender for the right to operate businesses in the gaming zone has attracted only 6 bidders for the 16 sites.

The remaining ten are to be put up for sale again. As Marchmont reported earlier, the 16 sites range from 1.83 to 3.01 hectares.

Only seven sites were exhibited at auction for the first time, the rest - and for the second and third times. The starting price to rent the land amounted to around $5,420 a year, the minimum amount of investment in construction in each of the sites is estimated at $4m. The only succesful bidders are the Krasnodar Kubanneft project, which will develop five sites, and Tatarstan-based Royal Time which will develop one.

Federal Service of Financial Markets has registered a $15m in additional shares, issued by Azov-City Gambling Zone Krasnodar Direction, the Service reports.

No details of the issue have been disclosed.

Officials in Krasnodar region have announced a sixth auction for space in the Azov-City gambling zone is to be held.

This time officials plan to auction 12 lots, including 10, 1-8 - 3 hectare lots which remained unsold at the last auction.

The two new lots are 5.2 and 10 hectares and intended for a theme park and other non-gambling attractions.

Auction bidders must commit at least $4.8m to invest in the lot should they win.

Annual rent for the spaces starts at between $4,520 and $4,760.

Marchmont reported the fifth auction for lots in Azov City on 15th October.

Moscow developer Korston has announced $15m plans to build a hotel and casino in Azov-City gambling zone.

But the company is reportedly undecided as to which side of the zone - in Krasnodar or Rostov regions - to build.

The 200 guest room hotel and casino, with 50 gambling tables and 600 slot machines, are to be built on a 10-hectare site, the firm said.

Timeframes for the project are yet to be announced.

Using uncharacteristically stern language, President Dmitry Medvedev told Federal Tax Service chief Mikhail Mokretsov on Tuesday that he would tolerate no delays in moving all gambling to special regional zones within two months.

"It is imperative that these rules go into effect in due time. There will be no revisions, no pushing back -- despite the lobbying efforts of various businesses," Medvedev said at their meeting at his Gorki residence outside Moscow.

"This is the state's position," he said. "You have to control this process, and the activities of gambling establishments must cease on June 30."

New rules approved in late 2006 require all gambling establishments to move to one of four zones established for the industry by July 1 of this year. Casinos must be closed, and betting will be banned outside the zones, which are located in areas on the Azov Sea, in the Far East and in the Altai and Kaliningrad regions. The legislation was introduced to the State Duma by then-President Vladimir Putin.

The rules have come under fire from casinos and investors in the gambling zones, who have said that the zones don't have the infrastructure to build new casinos in time for the summer deadline.

Casino owners have said they will be forced to transform their establishments into less profitable restaurants, concert halls and even poker clubs to stay open in Moscow, their main market. There are currently 549 gambling establishments in the capital, Deputy Mayor Sergei Baidakov said last month.

The deadline for moving the establishments out of cities was changed once before the rules were signed into law, from the original date of January 2009. Last year, United Russia Deputy Alexander Popov offered to push the deadline to 2012 but later retracted his proposal without explanation.

Medvedev's firm position on the issue Tuesday could indicate a standoff between his word and the powerful gambling lobby, analysts said.

"The business is very influential and has a strong lobby, including in the Duma," said Dmitry Oreshkin, an analyst with the Mercator think tank.

He said it was no secret that the gambling industry pays large taxes and kickbacks, so many bureaucrats are interested in leaving gambling in Moscow. "If the lobby wins in delaying the deadline, it will essentially mean that the state's word means nothing, so it's important for Medvedev, who is trying to show he is a serious politician," he said.

Medvedev pressed Mokretsov over his readiness to deal with gambling businesses. "How ready is the Federal Tax Service to control gambling after the new rules go into effect?" he said, Interfax reported.

Mokretsov reassured the president that the tax agency, which has been given increasingly more control over the gambling industry in the past two years, was ready to "administer the business in the four gambling zones." He noted that the industry has shrunk by 42 percent in the first four months of 2009.

Mokretsov became tax chief in early 2007, replacing Anatoly Serdyukov, who went on to head the Defense Ministry. Prior to his work in the agency, Mokretsov worked for St. Petersburg's city tax department. "He is not a silovik, he is an intellectual," Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said in explaining Mokretsov's appointment at the time. "Siloviki" is a term applied to government officials with ties to the security services.

Dix-sept établissements de jeu ont été fermés en dix jours à Moscou, ce qui porte leur nombre à 529 dans la capitale, a indiqué lundi à la presse le maire adjoint Sergueï Baïdakov.

Au 28 mai, 546 établissements du jeu fonctionnaient à Moscou dont 30 casinos et 516 salles de machines à sous.
"Aujourd'hui 29 casinos, 500 salles des machines à sous et 14 bureaux de bookmakers opèrent à Moscou", a annoncé M.Baïdakov, ajoutant que les autorités de la capitale entreprenaient tous les efforts pour mettre fin à l'activité de ce type d'établissements d'ici le 1er juillet.
Selon lui, 90% des locaux accueillant les établissements du jeu sont privés et 10% appartiennent à la ville.

A deputy Moscow mayor promised Monday that the mandatory closing of all casinos next month would not significantly swell the ranks of the unemployed -- or mean an end to gambling in the city.

"We are not trying to ban gambling, just regulate it," Deputy Mayor Sergei Baidakov told reporters.

Under a federal law passed in 2006, gambling will be confined to four designated zones spread across the country as of July 1. Industry advocates say the zones are poorly developed and that closing casinos will leave thousands jobless.

But Baidakov said only 4,000 Moscow residents would be affected, and they were being offered city-funded retraining for new jobs.

"We are often frightened that thousands of people might take to the streets and block the roads," he said in an apparent reference to the blockade of a highway near the Leningrad regional town of Pikalyovo by 400 unemployed people last week. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin personally intervened in the crisis.

"But for Muscovites, the city's labor and employment service is offering job openings and re-education," Baidakov said.

He said the city employment department received notification of more than 10,000 planned layoffs in the gambling industry as of late April, including the 4,000 Moscow residents.

Baidakov declined to say what would happen to the newly unemployed who were not Moscow residents.

The city has about 550 gambling establishments, including 29 casinos.

Baidakov said the owners of some gambling establishments have already informed the city administration about plans to move to other former Soviet republics and Europe.

He said 10 percent of the premises occupied by gambling establishment belong to city administration, and they will be turned into "socially oriented business" like restaurants and shops. He offered no advice for what the landlords of the other 90 percent should do after their gambling tenants move away.

Baidakov acknowledged that gambling establishments would not disappear on July 1 "with a wave of a wand." A special hot line will be opened to receive complaints on illegal gambling in Moscow. The telephone number will be released in late June.

While slot machines and roulette wheels will be illegal, other forms of gambling like poker and bookmakers will be allowed at specially licensed "sports clubs." Baidakov said dealers will be replaced with qualified "judges" at the sports clubs, and alcoholic beverages and smoking will not be allowed.

Sixty poker clubs are registered in Moscow, but only 5 percent of them are actually certified, said David Chichua of the Moscow Sport Poker Federation.