No one was willing to buy Odessa's Central Department Store for 400 million

An auction for the sale of the TSUM building on Italiiska Street in Odesa was canceled. The property was put up for auction as part of the bankruptcy proceedings of Ukrbudspetstech LLC.

This information was published on the Prozorro.Sales platform.

The auction was scheduled for August 20, but was canceled due to a lack of bidders.

The deadline for submitting bids was August 19, and the starting price for the property was 399.4 million hryvnias.

An entire property complex with a total area of 12,400 square meters was put up for auction.

According to the documents, it includes a department store building, a control room, a training workshop, a warehouse, canopies, and electrical workshops.

At the same time, the technical passport indicates that, in fact, only the main building—the TSUM shopping center—remains of the complex. The control room, training workshop, warehouse, electrical workshops, and one of the sheds listed in the title documents are actually missing. Instead, there is another canopy, a walkway, and a tank on the premises. However, the total area of the lot has not changed.

The building is used as a shopping center with retail and warehouse spaces.

The sale is taking place as part of the bankruptcy proceedings of Ukrbudspetstech LLC, which is part of the business group of former People’s Deputy Leonid Klimov.

According to the documents, ownership of the building belongs to Black Sea Realty Group LLC, which was renamed Ukrbudspetstekh LLC in 2016.

The company is registered in Odesa, and its primary business activity is the leasing and operation of its own or leased real estate. Leonid Klimov is listed as the ultimate beneficiary.

Leonid Klimov is the former owner ofImexbank JSC, which was declared insolvent in late January 2015. In January 2021, the Odessa Court of Appeals ruled to collect 309 million UAH from Klimov in favor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) to repay Imexbank’s debt on a previously granted stabilization loan.

Ірина Глухова