Company News

ASTERA Introduces a New Restaurants Chain at Saint Petersburg Market

A new chain of restaurants offering Italian cuisine in quick service format is entering St. Petersburg market. The first restaurant of the chain will be opened in the 7th line of Vasilievskij island. ASTERA, an alliance member of BNP Paribas Real Estate, has rendered services on premise selection.

Any Group company is launching a new chain of quick service restaurants serving Italian cuisine, which will be targeted at youth, students, clerks, city guests and families with kids. The first 80-seat restaurant with the area of around 270 sq.m. will be opened near the underground station ‘Vasileostrovskaya’ in April-May, 2012.
Concept of the chain in casual dining format shall combine speed of service with cosy atmosphere of the hall. Restaurant menu comprises a set of simple dishes, which can be mixed up to the visitor’s liking. The main dish is fresh pasta (Pasta Fresca) with various toppings. An average bill including the drink will make 350-400 roubles. Smoking is forbidden in the whole chain.
In two years it is planned to open 20 restaurants in Saint Petersburg, and then to develop the brand on the federal level. The anticipated amount of investments into each restaurant makes 250’000 Euro with payback period of 12 months.

“Restaurants with the total area of 250-300 sq.m. will be located in the walking distance from the underground stations. We will focus on opening our outlets in the dormitory districts, where the quantity of fast-food establishments is yet small. According to the chain concept, the restaurants will not be opened in food-courts or in the shopping centers, they will be located only in detached building or in in-built premises,’ – Vladimir Simonov, the co-founder of Any Group company says.
In opinion of experts in ASTERA, an alliance member of BNP Paribas Real Estate, the chosen concept of restaurants arrangement reflects the existing trend. “At the present moment the fast-food operators, including large chains, are most interested in ‘deep’ dormitory district: Rzhevka, Grazhdanskij prospect and Prosveshcheniya prospect, Kupchino and Leninskij prospect. The premises of interest are no longer located near the underground stations (when the visitors drop in the restaurant on their way somewhere), but are located in the immediate vicinity of the residential buildings,’ – Lyudmila Reva, the director in ASTERA, says, – ‘Interest in space located not in the city centre, but in the dormitory districts, including space located at a distance form the underground, is caused by lack of liquid supply in the central part of St. Petersburg. If the projects, which meet the multiple requirements of the tenants, appear in the centre, the rental rates level grows too high to allow for profitable business’.