Gulliver (building)

Gulliver
Gulliver
	frontal view of the office part of the building as seen from Baseina Street
	Interactive map of the Gulliver area
Former names	City Plaza (2003–2006); Esplanade (2006–2008); Continental (2008–2011)
General information
Status	Completed
Type	mixed-use
Location	Kyiv, Ukraine, Sportyvna Square 1A
Coordinates	50°26′19″N 30°31′23″E / 50.43861°N 30.52306°E
Construction started	August 2003
Completed	November 2013
Cost	$200,000,000
Owner	Oschadbank (80%); Ukreximbank (20%);
Height
Antenna spire	162,4 m
Roof	148.1 m (486 ft)
Technical details
Floor count	35 + 4 below ground
Floor area	155,000 m2 (1,668,406 sq ft)
Design and construction
Architect	Tetiana Hryhorova
Developer	TRI O
Website
	gullivercenter.com/en

The Gulliver multifunctional complex (Ukrainian: Багатофункціональний комплекс «Gulliver») is a state-owned 35-story mixed-use skyscraper in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine.

It is located at the very center of the city near Palats Sportu metro station (municipal address: 1, Sportyvna Sq). It is the second-highest building and the highest office building in the country.^[4]

The complex consists of a 35-story office building and an adjoining 10- to 16-story shopping mall with movie theaters, restaurants and other business and entertainment spots.

The building switched several names over the course of construction before in 2011 it was named 'Gulliver' after the eponymous hero of Jonathan Swift's novel Gulliver's Travels.

History

The current site of Gulliver used to be occupied with private housing since the 19th century. In 1958-1960 the Kyiv Palace of Sports had been built nearby and the future building location was cleared to organize a park next to the complex, the tram line was extended there and further into Pechersk. In 1989 the park territory has been used as a construction site for Palats Sportu metro station. After the construction's end the park was restored and the fountain was built in it.

In 1998 the tram line has been moved from the street, separating trams and automobiles. On a place where the park has been the tram terminus was built but it didn't last long since the tram lines in the city centre had been dismantled in 2001. The next year it was proposed to use the free space to build a new office building.

Construction began in August 2003, originally the skyscraper was meant to be called the City Plaza. The first project had a white concrete facade with glass floors on top and the mall section had a park on its roof.

Due to the building's large size the construction progressed slowly. It took four years to build an underground parking lot, which was completed in July 2006. The same year the complex has been renamed to Esplanade after the street it was located on.

6 July 2006 Bureau Veritas was contracted for technical and financial control of the construction.

In June 2007 the project simplified the facade, making it all-glass. New project added a smaller tower behing the main one and both of them received a metal roof structures.

In December 2007 the first piece of glass facade was installed on the office part. In March 2008 the final 35th floor was assembled and the technical floor was finished in April.

In August 2008 the complex was renamed to Continental, at the same time Furshet supermarket chain the first tenant of the mall.

In October 2008 ThyssenKrupp installed the elevators in the building. In November work on the mall section has been started. In March 2009 the cranes were dismantled. At the time the project got simplified once again, metal structures and the rooftop park were removed.

In August 2012, the construction was completed, and in September 2013 it was inaugurated.

Ownership controversies

The original owners of the complex were Turkmen developer Vagif Aliev and Ukrainian politicians Oleksiy Kucherenko and Serhiy Veselov, construction work was conducted by TRI O development company using the credit money of Oschadbank and Ukreximbank to fund the construction.

Aliev also owned Parus Business Centre located nearby which he sold prior to its completion to invest in Gulliver. In 2012 on the stage of construction it was sold to a Ukrainian oligarch and owner of TRI O and Mykhailivskyi Bank Victor Polishchuk. After finishing the construction Polishchuk refused to pay the dept and fled the country. After giving a loan guarantee, Vyacheslav Ihnatenko became the new owner of TRI O.

In 2016, following the Revolution of Dignity, Polishchuk's Mykhailivskyi Bank went bankrupt without paying its clients. Later that year police suspected the management of the Mykhailivskyi Bank in stealing ₴1.5 billion leading the bank to bankruptcy. As a part of the case Gulliver had been arrested. The arrest was lifted in 2017 following the complaint of the developer. Throughout that time Polishchuk was never suspected and Gulliver's director Iryna Kruppa was denying his ties to the complex.

In 2018 it was attempted to sell the mall for ₴18.177 million but the auction was cancelled with no further explanation. After that floors 31-33 of the main tower were arrested by Asset Tracing and Management Agency, under control of which they remained until 2021.

In 2020 TRI O restructured its dept and extended the credit's validity period to 2044. After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 the payments have stopped.

In 2023 Bureau of Economical Safety exposed the tax evasion of Iryna Kruppa, she had a dept of ₴145.8 million. At the same time the mall had been concluding fake contracts for works that weren't actually being made.