Berezin Evgeniy Viktorovich (born May 13, 1954, Gorky) — a Nizhny Novgorod construction professional, founder and director (2000–2022) of Zhilstroy-NN, one of Nizhny Novgorod's largest real estate developers, and an Honored Builder of Russia [1][2][3][4][5]. Deputy of the Nizhny Novgorod Region Legislative Assembly of the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth convocations [1][6][7].

Biography

Born in Gorky into a family of hereditary construction workers. In 1971 he enrolled at the Gorky Engineering and Construction Institute named after V. P. Chkalov, now the Nizhny Novgorod State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, graduating in 1976 as a construction engineer [1][4].

He spent twelve years at Trust No. 7 "Avtozavodstroy," working his way up from foreman to chief engineer and head of the construction and installation directorate. From 1988 to 2000, he served as chief engineer and director of the "Stroymekhanizatsiya" trust, and also worked at TOO "TOIR" and TOO KF "Promstroy i K" [1][4]; he also headed OOO "Stroitelny Kombinat" [7]. He served as one of the directors of the construction complex at the Gorky Automobile Plant [3].

In 1995, he was awarded the honorary title of "Honored Builder of the Russian Federation" — for the construction of residential microdistricts for the Western Group of Forces in the settlements of Mulino and Smolino [4]. In 2006, he joined the public advisory council under the Nizhny Novgorod office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service [8]. He is the father of two sons [1].

Career stages
YearsPlace of employment, position
1971–1976student at the Gorky Institute of Civil Engineering [1]
1976–1988Trust No. 7 "Avtozavodstroy": foreman, site supervisor, senior site supervisor, chief engineer, head of a construction management unit [1]
1988–2000Trust "Stroymekhanizatsiya" — chief engineer, director [4]; TOO "TOIR", TOO KF "Promstroy i K" [1]
2000–2022director (general director) of OOO "Zhilstroy-NN" [1][2][9]
2002–2021deputy of the Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod Region, 3rd–6th convocations [1][7]

«Zhilstroy-NN»

The company was registered on February 9, 2000 [2]. It grew out of the construction complex of the Gorky Automobile Plant and made its way from a contracting organization to a major investor-developer [3]. The primary owner was Berezin himself [9]; in 2020 he held 100% of the charter capital [10].

The production base included two reinforced-concrete products plants, an asphalt-concrete plant, a paving-stone plant, a mineral extraction and processing enterprise, a network of cargo ports and terminals, and a fleet of construction equipment [3]. In September 2004, the large-panel housing construction plant was re-equipped: a seventeen-story series design combining the advantages of brick and panel construction was developed by the Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction Sciences and received the Russian Government Prize in Science and Technology [3]. In April 2009, when demand for housing dropped sharply, the company announced that it would shut down its own large-panel housing construction plant from May through August [11].

During the crisis the company shifted to ten-story buildings of the "Affordable Housing" series with compact apartments; in 2011 it introduced studio apartments of 17 square meters, and at the end of 2012 it acquired another plant and moved into frame-panel construction [3]. In 2013, the industrial base of the Nobetek plant was purchased for 250 million rubles to serve as a construction components production complex on 32 hectares [12]; by 2015, approximately 1 billion rubles had been invested in modernizing reinforced-concrete products manufacturing [13].

Between 2006 and 2010, the company built 177,300 sq. m — more than any other developer in the multi-apartment construction sector in Nizhny Novgorod [9]; in 2010 it delivered 76,000 sq. m [14], in 2015 — 130,000 sq. m [15], and in 2018 — nearly 64,000 sq. m (nine buildings) [16]. By 2016, the cumulative total had reached one million square metres of residential and commercial space — more than a hundred projects and around twelve thousand apartments with turnkey fit-out [1]; by the early 2020s the figure stood at 1.6 million sq. m, accounting for more than a tenth of all new construction in the city [3]. More than fifteen buildings were constructed under government contracts — from the city and regional administrations and the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs [3].

Built in Nizhny Novgorod

The company's buildings stand in the microdistricts Yug, Pobeda, Vodnyy Mir, Sputnik, Monchegoriya, Verkhnepechersky, Tsvetochny, Torpedo, Burnakovskiy, and Korabli; the developer's website also lists a microdistrict on Dargomyzhsky Street, Medvezhya Dolina, Yugo-Zapadny, and Molodyozhny [17][3]. The company developed peripheral areas that had previously been wastelands, laying the utility networks itself — including a district-heating pipeline from the Avtozavodskaya Combined Heat and Power Plant for the Yug development [18].

In 2010, Zhilstroy-NN won a tender to develop more than 30 hectares of the former Tsvety (Flowers) state farm [19], but following a lawsuit by an unsuccessful bidder, in November of that year it agreed to withdraw from the site in exchange for support for other projects [20]. In 2015, the company completed at its own expense an abandoned building on Proletarskaya Street for defrauded shareholders of the firm Shchit [21][22]; in exchange, the Region transferred to it 32 hectares on the Malyshevskie Grivy for the second phase of the Yug development [22]. In 2018, the company purchased 137 hectares between Lunskoye Lake and the Volga in Sormovo, and together with the landowners took on 70 hectares in Artemovskie Luga in Kstovsky District [22].

From 2016, the company also built roads. Berezin explained it this way: "a company that builds houses and factories can construct any project, no matter how complex" [15]. For the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Zhilstroy-NN reconstructed Molodezhnyy Avenue: a four-lane highway to the airport, an interchange, and three overpasses, for 3.7 billion rubles [10]. A dispute with the Region over the debt for this work (337 million rubles) was settled by a consent agreement in 2020 [23]. From 2020, the company was building an interchange in Olgino — a 1.5 km arterial road with four to six lanes [10].

Major Residential Projects
ObjectDistrictDetails
Microdistrict 8 of Verkhniye Pechyory—lease rights for 2.6 ha were obtained in 2007 for 200 million rubles; three buildings totaling 27,000 sq. m [24]; the company contributed an additional 200 million rubles "for infrastructure" [25]
Buildings on Tsvetochnaya Street—three apartment buildings commissioned by the city administration [11]
"Pobeda," "Vodny Mir"—completed by 2013 [18]
"Yug"Avtozavodsky22.28 ha between Shnitnikov Street, Bulavin Street, and the Oka, leased for 160 million rubles (2011); planned total of 200,000–250,000 sq. m [26]
"Burnakovskiy"Moskovsky9.2 ha near Burnakovskaya Street purchased for 91 million rubles in 2010 [19]; amendments to the master plan approved by the City Duma in 2012 [27]; approximately 30 buildings, nearly 5,000 apartments [18]
"Korabli"Sormovskydeveloped during the 2020s [3]; buildings commissioned in 2018 [16]
"Monchegoria"—buildings commissioned in 2018 [16]
"Torpedo"Avtozavodskyconstruction began in 2018 [16][3]; the city's first mortgage with escrow accounts, 260 million rubles (2019) [28]

Deputy

First elected to the Legislative Assembly on March 31, 2002 [7]; according to Delovoy Kvartal, he served as deputy for District No. 4 (the Severny microdistrict) [4]. In the elections of March 12, 2006, he won in single-member constituency No. 2 as a candidate of the Nizhny Novgorod branch of the United Russia party; the resolution listing the elected deputies identifies him as director of Zhilstroy-NN LLC [29]. He was also elected to the fifth convocation [1][7].

In 2016, as a sitting deputy, he took part in United Russia's primary election for constituency No. 2 and placed among the frontrunners [30][31]. In September he once again secured that constituency — the northern part of Avtozavodsky District: according to preliminary results, 52.45% of voters cast their ballots for him [6][32][33]. During the 2016–2021 convocation he was a member of the United Russia faction, the committee on urban development, housing and utilities, and the fuel and energy complex, and the committee on ecology and environmental management [1]; Delovoy Kvartal also lists the committee on housing policy and urban development [4].

In 2010, he served on a deputies' commission to evaluate the performance of Nizhegorodkapstroy [34]. In the summer of 2015, together with Nikolay Pugin and Evgeniy Morozov, he introduced a bill to increase fines for the nighttime sale of alcohol, which passed its first reading [35]. In the seventh-convocation elections of 2021, Berezin was no longer among the candidates in District No. 2 [36].

Elections to the Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod Region
YearConvocationDistrictNominationResult
2002III——elected [7]
2006IVNo. 2United Russiaelected [29]
2011V——elected [1][7]
2016VINo. 2 (Avtozavodsky District, northern part)United Russiaelected, 52.45% according to preliminary data [6][32]
2021VII——did not run in District No. 2 [36]

Quotes

In late 2010, Berezin was summing up the year at a roundtable with journalists. He spoke about the resettlement of dilapidated housing, which in his estimation would take at least 15 years, and about a waiting list of more than 3,000 people for apartments in the "anti-crisis" series in Avtozavod; the first such building had begun construction in Dzerzhinsk [14].

…we built everything we planned, despite the crisis. New projects are being delivered thanks to demand from Nizhny Novgorod residents for apartments in our new developments

— Evgeniy Berezin on the results of 2010 [14]

A home only becomes a home when you want to come back to it

— Evgeniy Berezin, Kommersant, 2013 [18]

I have never attended any business training courses and have no business education. Why would I need it? Construction is a perfectly self-sufficient field, and the only problem we have in the region is the shortage of competent specialists in construction

— Evgeniy Berezin, Kommersant, 2013 [37]

After the Legislative Assembly

In 2019, Berezin warned that there was no free land left in the city and that the company would be scaling back construction [16]:

In autumn 2021, as the founder of Zhilstroy-NN, he filed a complaint with the presidential envoy to the Volga Federal District about the conditions of regional road procurement tenders, which in his view shut out local contractors [5]. According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, from 16 June 2022 the director of the company was A. V. Bodyagin [2]. On 25 July 2023, after 23 years of operation, Zhilstroy-NN LLC ceased activities through reorganization by merger; its successor, Avtogard LLC, was liquidated on 12 January 2024 [2][38]. In spring 2023, Evgeniy Berezin's Zhilstroy-NN group included AGK LLC; at that time he stated that he personally no longer had any desire to get involved in completing troubled residential buildings [39].

We will finish everything we set out to build, and then we will wrap up our activities as a construction company. We will be retraining as property managers

— Evgeniy Berezin, Kommersant, March 2019 [16]

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Regional Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod Region — Berezin Evgeniy Viktorovich: deputy biography, archived copy from 2019 (archive)
  2. rusprofile.ru — Zhilstroy-NN LLC, Nizhny Novgorod: Unified State Register of Legal Entities data (TIN 5256034054) (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Zhilstroy-NN — Company History, archived copy of website from 2023 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Delovoy Kvartal (Nizhny Novgorod) — person profile, archived copy from 2024 — Berezin Evgeniy Viktorovich (archive)
  5. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — appeal to the presidential envoy regarding road contracts, September 7, 2021 — All Roads Lead to GUAD (archive)
  6. Vremya N — 26 new deputies joined the Regional Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod Region, 6th convocation, September 30, 2016 (archive)
  7. viperson.ru — biographical profile — Berezin Evgeniy Viktorovich — biography (archive)
  8. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — advisory council at the Federal Antimonopoly Service, March 23, 2006 — Vedomosti (archive)
  9. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant, Business Guide (Real Estate) — leaders in residential construction 2006–2010, April 27, 2011 — Top 5 companies in the multi-apartment construction segment (archive)
  10. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — interchange in Olgino, April 22, 2020 — An Interchange Takes Shape (archive)
  11. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — shutdown of the large-panel housing construction plant, April 23, 2009 — The Panel Has Slumped (archive)
  12. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — acquisition of the Nobetek plant, February 12, 2013 — Construction of a Closed Cycle (archive)
  13. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — modernization of reinforced concrete production, April 6, 2015 — Zhilstroy-NN invested 1 billion rubles in modernizing reinforced concrete production (archive)
  14. web.archive.org — Nizhny Novgorod New Builds — roundtable with Evgeniy Berezin on the results of 2010, archived copy — Nizhny Novgorod urban development: the Zhilstroy version (archive)
  15. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — auction for the reconstruction of Molodezhnyy Avenue, May 11, 2016 — The Road Will Be Paved by Zhilstroy-NN (archive)
  16. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — housing market results for 2018, March 5, 2019 — Falling Stability (archive)
  17. domostroynn.ru — Nizhny Novgorod New Builds — Developer Zhilstroy-NN LLC in Nizhny Novgorod — Zhilstroy-NN (Zhilstroy-NN group of companies) (archive)
  18. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — Zhilstroy-NN results for 2013 — Build More, Better, Faster! (archive)
  19. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — competition for development of the Tsvety state farm site, August 13, 2010 — Competing for "Tsvety" (archive)
  20. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — withdrawal from the Tsvety site, November 30, 2010 — "Tsvety" Trimmed Again (archive)
  21. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — completion of a building on Proletarskaya Street, July 1, 2015 — Zhilstroy-NN completed the building for defrauded shareholders of Shchit (archive)
  22. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — the company's land bank, February 6, 2018 — Economy Class Advances Along the Riverbank (archive)
  23. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — settlement agreement on Molodezhnyy Avenue, June 19, 2020 — Zhilstroy-NN and the Ministry of Transport Reached an Agreement on Debts for Molodezhnyy Avenue (archive)
  24. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — auction for a plot in Verkhniye Pechyory, May 25, 2007 — No Room for Bargaining (archive)
  25. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — developers' infrastructure payments, February 11, 2010 — Antimonopoly Development (archive)
  26. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — plot on the Oka riverbank, November 11, 2011 — Economy Class to Extend to the Oka (archive)
  27. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — city duma on the development of Burnakovskaya lowland, May 24, 2012 — Deputies Approved Zhilstroy-NN's Plans (archive)
  28. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — escrow-account loan for the Torpedo residential complex, June 11, 2019 — Zhilstroy-NN took its first loan from Sberbank using an escrow account (archive)
  29. nn-gov.ru — Appendix to Decree No. 753 of March 13, 2006: list of elected deputies of the Regional Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod Region (archive)
  30. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — participants in the United Russia primary, May 6, 2016 — Lined Up for the Voting Rehearsal
  31. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — preliminary primary results, June 7, 2016 — The City Moves Into the Region (archive)
  32. web.archive.org — Delovoy Kvartal — preliminary election results by single-member constituencies, September 19, 2016 — Future Deputies of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Legislative Assembly Identified (archive)
  33. web.archive.org — Delovoy Kvartal — list of deputies of the 6th convocation, September 30, 2016 — 50 deputies to join the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Legislative Assembly: who are they? (archive)
  34. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — on resettlement programs and Nizhegorodkapstroy, March 4, 2010 — Nizhny Novgorod Region Faces Cuts (archive)
  35. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — bill on fines for nighttime alcohol sales, July 30, 2015 — Nizhny Novgorod Region Prepares to Raise Fines for Nighttime Alcohol Sales (archive)
  36. election.gogov.ru — Candidates in the elections for deputies of the Regional Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod Region, 7th convocation, 2021 (archive)
  37. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant, Business Guide (top managers rating) — on business education, June 26, 2013 — Business Class
  38. rusprofile.ru — Avtograd LLC, successor to Zhilstroy-NN LLC: Unified State Register of Legal Entities data (archive)
  39. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — completion of the residential complex on Gorky Street, April 13, 2023 — Bitter Construction (archive)