Trust Bank has sold the Veshnyaki business centre

This story is not only about an interesting transaction on the commercial property market. It is also about how legal details can have a serious effect on the economics of an asset after it has been bought.

On Monday the Veshnyaki business centre, a complex of buildings with a total area of 11,842.9 sq m, passed to a new owner. The auction held in June and declared unsuccessful ended in a contract with the sole participant, at the starting price of RUB 561.67 million.

The business centre comprises five buildings at 1st Veshnyakovsky Proezd, house 1 (structures 7, 8, 10, 11 and 12), and a land plot of 8,749 sq m.

Even before the transaction the buyer knew that proceedings were under way in which the city asks the court to declare unauthorised, and to order the demolition of, superstructures with a total area of 3,204.1 sq m, about a quarter of the whole complex. Even if those areas are held to be unauthorised, the contract remains in force and the money paid is not refundable. The risk lies entirely with the buyer.

At the time of the auction (30 June 2025) and of the signing of the contract between the buyer and Trust (9 July 2025), the position looked favourable: a decision of the cassation court in the buyer's favour was in force.

But on 21 July the position turned. The Supreme Court referred the case to the Judicial Panel for Economic Disputes. If the cassation decision is set aside, the new owner will lose 25% of the floor area and will bear the cost of restoring the buildings to their original condition.

We will learn how this story ends on 12 August.

Trust Bank received the complex back in 2016, by way of a transfer in settlement of a debt. The bank made its first attempt to sell the complex in 2021, but the auction did not take place. Five years later the asset was sold after all.

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