Ocean Plaza

The plaza contains space for more than 400 stores and 30 restaurants and cafes in approximately 165,000 square metres (1,780,000 sq ft).[1] The plaza has 7 floors and a parking area of 1600 parking lots.[6] At the time of its completion, Ocean Plaza had been the largest mall in Ukraine, and it kept this status until Lavina Mall's opening in 2016. The plaza has a 350,000-liter giant aquarium with more than 1,000 sea creatures and offers a 16-meter-long panoramic view. There are several multiplexes and movie theatres. Ukraine's first 7D cinema was housed in this plaza.[1][7] In 2013, Forpoint opened Ukraine's first Cinnabon cafe at this plaza.[8]

In 2000s, a market near the Kyiv Refrigeration Plant was demolished to build a large mall called Lybid Plaza. It was named after the Lybid River at the bank of which the construction site was located. The original project was bigger, the building's area was one million m². Lybid Plaza was presented at MAPIC retail forum in Cannes in 2007 and 2008, and various developers were interested in buying a 50% share of the it, but the global financial crisis interrupted these plans.[9] After the crisis, the project was renamed Ocean Plaza, and its space was cut to 150 000 m². Also, it was planned to build an office tower and an apartment tower as the mall's second queue; however, they were cancelled later on.[10]

The construction of the mall began in 2010 with a plan of finishing it in March 2012, prior to UEFA Football Championship. In November, KAN Development presented the updated project at MAPIC-2010.[11] In December, Ocean Mall project was also presented at Mall Expo 2010 summit in Kyiv where it had won the Mall Awards 2010 in the category Best Project in the Capital.[12] In November 2011, UTG presented the project at MAPIC-2011.

In December 2011, the statue made by Frank Meisler was transported from Israel to Ukraine in order to be placed inside Ocean Plaza and to become a symbol of the mall.[13]

In July 2012, Vasyl Khmelnytsky, Andrey Ivanov and Vagif Aliev sold Ocean Plaza to Russian TPS Nedvizhimost for US$280−350 million.[14]

Ocean Plaza was opened on 19 November 2012. Initially, US$200 million was invested for the project.[1] Before the inauguration of the plaza, Kyiv Post reported in their newspaper that the event was the "most anticipated events for Kyiv's retail world." Right after the official inauguration, an opening celebration took place on 7 December.

The City Beach Club opened 20 August 2013 on the rooftop of Ocean Plaza.[15]

In December 2013, the mall won at CP Awards 2013 in Kyiv in the category Large Shopping Mall.[16]

Since July 2012, the mall was co-owned by Russian TPS Nedvizhimost and Ukrainian investment and development companies UDP and KAN Development.[17] TPS Nedvizhimost is controlled by Liliya Rotenberg (daughter of Russian oligarch Arkady Rotenberg), Alexander Ponomarenko and Alexander Skorobogatko.[17]

After the Russo-Ukrainian War began in 2014, many Ukrainians began to boycott Russian businesses in the country. On 26 November 2018, unknown people attacked the mall with smoke grenades, and visitors were evacuated.[18] On 28 November, Sokil nationalist activism organization took Ocean Plaza under their 'peaceful control'. Over 200 nationalists captured the mall with a goal of stopping Russian oligarchy from financing the war. In social media, the organization described their actions as a peaceful protest and stated that they didn't interrupt the work of Ukrainian business. They also told people not to panic and warned them about possible provocations from Rotenberg's allies.[19]

In October 2019, Liliya Rotenberg left the owner role. However, the Cyprus offshore Ocean Plaza Project, which was listed as one of the owners, was owned by Rotenberg family retaining Ocean Plaza's Russian ownership.[20]

In 2022 Ocean Plaza, like many other Ukrainian malls, had been closed due to Russian invasion. However, unlike the others, it hadn't been opened after the liberation of Kyiv Oblast. In August, the mall was seized because of its Russian owners, and control was transferred to the Agency for Investigation and Management of Assets.[21] In September, Deputy Davyd Arakhamia announced the nationalization of Ocean Plaza.[22]

In December 2012, when the construction work inside the mall was still in progress, a part of the ceiling collapsed between the stores. Details of the accident are unknown.[23]

In the evening of 13 January 2020, due to an accident at the underground pipeline, Ocean Plaza was flooded with boiling water. Asphalt on surrounding streets collapsed and the minibus that was passing the mall almost fell into the hole on the road. The shopping mall's security had to block the elevators because the underground floor was completely filled with water. People from the first floor had to get up to the top floors with escalators or jump into their shopping carts. That day, ten people were hospitalized with light burns.[24]

On 16 January 2022, an unknown person informed the call center of Security Service of Ukraine that Ocean Plaza had been mined. People were evacuated from the mall and the building was examined, but the information turned out to be false and no explosives were found.[25]

• Official website