‘I believe there is absolutely no point in setting up another trade and business center in Vainer St.-Malyshev St.-Lenin Ave. This downtown area has already got a few malls, not all of which are fully occupied by tenants – this is true of Passage, for instance,’ says Director of GUM Trade Center Elena Uzkikh.

In the meantime, Aston Group keeps advertising its new Nakhimov Plaza mall currently under construction at 9 Vainer St. The future mall is claimed to be ‘Yekaterinburg’s only center that enjoys any demand’. The company’s official website reports the building is to be commissioned in July 2008, even though the construction process seems to be taking quite long. In fact, the mall was supposed to have been commissioned as early as the last quarter of 2007, but so far, even the outer walls haven’t been put up yet.

Aston Group acts as the broker for the building and, according to Chairman Vyacheslav Trapesnikov, all the delays have been caused by the limited area of the construction site. At the same time, the observers claim there might be another reason for delay, namely, the fact that the group’s general contractor is Premierstroy, a builder closely related to Noviy Grad, the notorious local developer that has recently gone bust.