By actively introducing new approaches to building apartment complexes in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, the company contributes to spreading modern European practices throughout the industry.
Leadership in Terms of Square Footage and Refusal From “Superfluous” Loans
Recently, both individual experts and specialized analytical centers repeatedly paid attention to the development division of the holding Euroinvest. The brainchild of Andrey Berezin and Yury Vasilyev stands out against the general background, including the construction volume. Even though the company, taking into account the current market realities, has also somewhat reduced the rate of housing construction this year, compared to other players, its behavior can be called very active.
And this is confirmed by the estimates made by the niche Unified Developers’ Magazine, which not so long ago included Euroinvest Development in the list of the four developers with the most significant volumes of commission housing.
Moreover, the company is almost as visible in the much larger market of the northern capital.
The Assessment and Analysis Center of BN.RU puts Euroinvest in eighth place among St. Petersburg developers based on the data on the total number and area of apartments commissioned in the first half of this year.
The first ten developers of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region on the output volume in the first half of 2022 (BN.RU):
| Builder | No. of apartments | Total area of apartments, thousand sq. m. |
| Setl City | 5 761 | 216 |
| LSR. Nedvizhimost-SZ | 4 854 | 176 |
| PIC | 2 03 | 126 |
| Aquilon Group | 1 690 | 80 |
| Construction Trust | 1 061 | 66 |
| Legenda Intelligent Development | 834 | 64 |
| CDS | 1 443 | 63 |
| Euroinvest Development | 1 205 | 57 |
| Novoselie Development | 1 301 | 47 |
In the holding itself, the need for a careful approach to development in the current environment is openly recognized. For example, Andrey Berezin, in an interview he recently gave to Novy Prospect Magazine, has repeatedly stressed that the volume of construction is less important to him than compliance with deadlines for housing and its quality.
“We brought out a new project on Engels Ave. in early February, which will certainly be completed. The new projects are still in question, but overall we have a stable situation, and we will complete all projects. In general, we have a few projects in the early stages of implementation, and there are no problems with financing. For example, we have received decisions from the credit committees to give us money for two projects in the city and one in the region. But we are not taking this money because we want to understand what will happen next,” he said in his conversation with a journalist.
However, this caution will hardly prevent the company from maintaining its leadership in development in the next few years. The head of the holding himself directly said that now the total volume of construction projects of Euroinvest is about 400 thousand square meters, an impressive figure, and the fact that their predominant share is composed of projects with a high degree of readiness can serve as an additional plus to the company’s account.
Club Format is the Key to Customer’s Attention
But to a greater extent, the experts pay attention to the qualitative results of the company and its development prospects. For example, the professional community has noted meticulous compliance with deadlines for completion of construction, the same Unified Developers’ Portal ranks Euroinvest as one of the best developers in the country on this parameter.
But the title of the most client-oriented builder in the Leningrad region was awarded this year not for the speed of construction but for the quality of the product. In its professional competition, the Union of Construction Associations and Organizations of the Leningrad Region studied the projects implemented by Euroinvest in the region.
Among them are four completed buildings of iD Murino Residential Complex, the first building of iD Kudrovo Residential Complex with a total area of over 32 thousand square meters, as well as buildings in Kudrovo and Murino (second phase) that are under construction.
The conclusions of the Union experts are unambiguous; Euroinvest has managed to create more than just quality housing and literally set a new standard of comfort in their neighborhoods.
The implemented 3iD format is especially emphasized, which is based on the use of “smart house” system technologies and the mandatory inclusion of public spaces into the residential complex. Moreover, the developer wants the dwelling in his house to open for the residents the broadest possible opportunities for communication and development and has created a club format of interaction for them.
Along with the keys, homeowners receive membership in the club of the corresponding residential complex and get the right to attend lectures, excursions, and master classes, which the administration regularly organizes. In addition, club members can count on a whole network of discounts and other privileges for various household services and shopping at partner stores.
All this, according to experts, significantly distinguishes Euroinvest from the behavior of most other domestic developers while bringing its demonstrated approach to those that are accepted in European countries. France is one of them, where the steady increase of construction standards has led to the fact that residential complexes at the stage of the construction shell turned out, as a rule, more expensive than the existing housing. Simply because the quality of life in a new house will undoubtedly be much better than in those that were delivered even a few years ago, and it is for this that the European consumer is willing to overpay.
Time will show whether Euroinvest will be able to receive an appropriate reward from Russian buyers for the quality growth it has achieved. But we can say for sure that such an attitude towards their own products, particularly in the rather mass segment of the “upper comfort class,” deserves professional respect.
Planning the Future
How does Euroinvest see its further development? Andrey Berezin speaks rather softly about it in his public speeches, but some things are clear from his words and from independent information sources.
First of all, the company will continue its active presence in the North-Western construction market and will not decrease its leadership ambitions. For instance, it became known in winter that the holding would be one of the key developers in the southern part of Murino. And in this project, the principles of construction to which Euroinvest adheres will probably manifest even more thoroughly than before.
Thus, the project’s authors promised an unprecedentedly low level of building density in the territory, approximately 20%. At the same time, the readiness to strictly limit the maximum number of stories was also announced; it will not exceed 12 floors. An absolute priority will remain the availability of public spaces for future neighborhood residents.
For them, the developers plan to give away more than 260 thousand square meters, which will make public areas really diverse. Besides the objects of trade and catering, the territory will have Quantoriums, science and educational centers, language schools for adults and children, co-working spaces, cinemas, museums, libraries, conference halls, and lecture halls, as well as a theater, a cultural and leisure center, and a planetarium.
Of course, the feasibility of such large-scale plans in the current circumstances can cause a certain skepticism. However, as for Euroinvest, we can be sure that it will meet the target. In particular, by looking at what the company is doing already now, including within the framework of its social mission.
For instance, it has become known quite recently that the holding invested in introducing health-saving technologies in the school in Gatchina and plans to continue this activity. And in the plans of construction activities for the near future, Euroinvest indicated its intention to build a kindergarten for 200 children in Kudrovo ahead of schedule. Such steps clearly show that Andrey Berezin’s company feels stable enough to fully fulfill its obligations both to its clients and to society as a whole.
The Middle Way
However, in today’s environment, no serious investment company is trying to build its strategy on only one direction of activity, even if it is well mastered. Difficult circumstances dictate the need to diversify investments. Euroinvest caught this trend a few years ago by stepping up work in new markets for itself: firstly in the agricultural sector and secondly in innovation. And it managed to get interesting results in both of them.
In the summer, the company managed to surprise the news channel’s audience with a report that the agro-cluster Krasnoye Znamya, created by it, became a supplier of fodder for the Leningrad Zoo. The deal, which was not too large in terms of production volumes, was a notable image event, showing that Euroinvest’s agricultural capacities were really capable of solving significant problems.
The investors invested several hundred million rubles in the cluster that includes grain fields, a herd of cattle, and their own dairy brand MoleMe. The last investment at the moment was the purchase of the resources of the neighboring farm, which allowed getting additional cowsheds and expanding the fleet of agricultural equipment.
It is possible to understand from Andrey Berezin’s words that he will not stop at what has already been achieved. “It is already clear that there will be trouble with food in the world. And even in this zone of risky agriculture, which includes our land in the Pskov region, we need to develop agriculture,” he stressed in an August interview.
However, the company invests much more in developing its own industrial production. Euroinvest has already managed to add three enterprises to its investment portfolio in this area: Svetlana, Rigel, and Recond. The first specializes in developing X-ray equipment, the second in producing radio components, and the third in lithium-ion batteries. Together they create a base that allows them to design and to create complex electronic units for different sectors of the economy. And first and foremost, for medicine.
However, the production facilities alone would not be enough to organize efficient work. Five years ago, Euroinvest announced the creation of a separate venture fund within its structure, called Euro Venture. The fund, whose task was to support projects in electronics, IT, and the new materials sphere, acted as the main locomotive of interaction between industrial enterprises of the holding.
At the moment, Euroinvest’s most famous development is a robotic complex for radiation exposure during oncologic surgeries. It allows doctors to combine surgical methods with point-radiation impact on the affected tissues and, thanks to that, provides an unprecedentedly high level of surgical efficiency.
The device was created at the Svetlana factory, the development was financed by the Euro Venture, and doctors and scientists from the best research centers in the North-West were involved. This ensured the success of the development, the implementation of which was approved by the Minister of Health Veronika Skvortsova personally. Now, according to the information voiced by Andrey Berezin, final preparations are being made to put the device into mass production.
Another medical device that is being created at the holding plants will be used for breast cancer diagnostics. Another promising direction is the creation of instruments for diagnostics of seed materials and flaw detection of various parts; all this is also based on X-rays.
Not so long ago, it became known about the successful development of a device for heating and repairing asphalt pavements. According to the creators, they managed to achieve that the UHF unit used in the device heats the pavement to its full depth, in contrast to existing analogs, acting only on the surface layers. The device is currently being sent for technical expertise, after which it will be further developed for mass production.
Another physical principle of ultrashort pulse radiolocation is used in a device that measures ice thickness. Such a device is expected to find application in the creation of drones for industrial and production companies, including Gazprom Neft, which is one of the customers. The sensors for the device are made by Svetlana, and other critical components of the new equipment will also be created here.
Investing in People
In a recent interview Andrey Berezin made a statement that shows: Euroinvest is ripe for a full-fledged entry into the field of edtech and intends to support the modernization of the country’s educational system from its side.
The company’s interest in the topic was noticeable earlier, including support of projects through the Euler Mathematical Foundation or assistance with some competitions and Olympiads to identify young talents. Later this lineup was supplemented by our own scholarship for promising undergraduate and graduate students.
But the new initiative will undoubtedly surpass all the previous ones in scale and depth: Andrey Berezin and his colleagues intend to create new resources for training young specialists. The first of which, apparently, will be the governor’s academy.
“A location has already been selected, and agreements in principle have been reached. We made a pre-project, received the terms of reference, and started the project. It’s moving slower than we would like, but it’s moving. We will pay for the design, and we will support the team of teachers who will come to work there when the school is ready,” said the head of Euroinvest in a conversation with a journalist.
It is worth adding that the founders of the project were able to solve two fundamentally essential issues. The first one is about the staffing of the academy. It is assumed that it will include specialists from the St. Petersburg 45th School, also focused on working with gifted teenagers.
The second question concerns the land. It was allocated to Mr. Kaselevo on the shore of the local Big Lake. The plot of land will be big enough to contain several educational buildings, residential premises, and also all the necessary small objects, from the sports complex and bio-laboratories to the private beach. Berezin does not yet say when the new facility will be completed. But judging by the way his company knows how to organize construction, you won’t have to wait long.
History and Biography
Andrey Berezin was born in 1967 in Leningrad. He studied at school #239 with a profound study of mathematics. In 1990 he graduated with honors from Leningrad Ustinov Mechanical Institute. In 1990 he graduated with honors from the Leningrad Ustinov Mechanical Institute, where he specialized in automatic control systems for aircraft. After his graduation, he enrolled in postgraduate school and simultaneously went into business.
In 1993 he became one of the co-founders of the North-West Fisheries Company. In 1995, together with Yury Vasilyev, he founded the investment company Euroinvest and became the CEO of the company.
Today Euroinvest is a diversified holding company that includes companies and projects from various economic sectors.
One of the directions of Euroinvest work is legal and engineering support for the developing land plots and territories in St. Petersburg, the Leningrad region, and other areas.
At the end of 2017, Euroinvest Group created its own construction division Euroinvest Development, which is engaged in the construction of housing and other objects, thus forming an entire cycle development business.
A relatively new direction for Euroinvest is the agro-industrial sector. Agrocluster Krasnoye Znamya in the Pskov region specializes in producing grain and fodder for livestock.
In May 2017, the management of the Euroinvest investment company established the Euro Venture fund with an initial amount of €10M. Priority areas for investment are innovative developments in the scientific and technical sphere, as well as projects in the creative industry.
