Russian Manhattan, also known as Manhattan-on-the-Volga — a nickname given by the press to the Globe Town project: a satellite city of skyscrapers that was planned in 2008 for the Borskaya Floodplain, on the left bank of the Volga opposite the Strelka. The role of the Hudson River in this comparison was assigned to the Volga. The nickname proved more durable than the project itself: eighteen years on, construction in the floodplain has yet to begin, while "Russian Manhattan" lives on as the name for an unfulfilled dream.[7]

The 2008 Vision

The design competition was won by the Italian studio Benini & Partners. The development area exceeded three thousand hectares, with a total floor area of more than 20 million square meters of residential and non-residential space, and investment estimated at roughly one trillion rubles through 2030. Construction was to begin in 2008 and conclude between 2025 and 2030.[1]

At the center of the composition stood a sphere called "The Globe" — 120 meters in diameter and enclosing two hundred thousand square meters — housing an opera house, a library, cinemas, and shops. Alongside it rose an international trade center comprising three towers of 600 meters each, while the main body of the development was to reach approximately 250 meters. The projected population of the future city was half a million, and the cost of engineering preparation and infrastructure was estimated at 20 billion dollars.[2]

Governor Valery Shantsev described the concept as "a purely investment project" that would "not require a single kopek from the budget," explaining it thus: "The third part of Nizhny Novgorod must become a city of the third millennium" and "we have no other resource for large-scale construction."[2] Investors, according to the Governor, were prepared to build a bridge across the Volga at their own expense in exchange for the right to develop the floodplain.[1]

How the Project Was Buried

Three years later the concept was abandoned. On 20 June 2011, the Chief Architect of Nizhny Novgorod Region, Sergey Popov, announced at a press conference that the original version of the Bor Floodplain development project had been shelved and that no design work on the site was underway.[3]

The reason was not only financial. The floodplain is inundated every spring, and to build there the site would have had to be raised by at least eight meters of fill. Popov considered only "very targeted and very small-scale" development feasible — "so as not to close off the horizons."[3]

The original version of the Bor Floodplain development project has been shelved.

— Sergey Popov, Chief Architect of Nizhny Novgorod Region, June 2011[3]

What Was Proposed Instead

The floodplain continued to attract new ideas. By 2020, the Bor riverbank had seen the appearance of "Borskoe Volgorech'ye" and a 520-space car park in place of the satellite city, while a pedestrian promenade bridge with viewing platforms was estimated at 130 million rubles.[4]

On 31 May 2021, a new project was unveiled — the "Nizhny" parkograd (low-rise eco-city): a low-rise, environmentally oriented city with the largest university campus by area in the world. The concept was developed by the Kreativnaya Laboratoriya studio on commission from the autonomous non-profit organization "Project Office for the Development Strategy of Nizhny Novgorod Region," at the direction of Governor Gleb Nikitin. Building height was capped at three storeys; more than 60 percent of rooftops were to be given over to heated lawns and the remainder to solar panels. The city was designed for 70,000 students, 40,000 entrepreneurs and self-employed people, and 30,000 employees; the main campus phase was allotted ten years.[5]

On 7 September 2024, Deputy Governor Yegor Polyakov presented the parkograd at the Eastern Economic Forum, again stipulating the three-storey limit; no timetable was given on that occasion either.[6]

Environmental Objections

The Dront Eco-Center opposed any large-scale development from the outset. The Bor Floodplain — a complex of meadows and lakes flooded each spring by the Volga — is home to the Russian desman, the Zerynthia polyxena butterfly, and the fire-bellied toad, all listed in the Red Data Book; the law prohibits activities that reduce the populations of Red Data Book species, and "building an enormous city and simultaneously not destroying Red Data Book animals is impossible." In place of development, the environmentalists proposed a UNESCO geopark and a carbon monitoring site.[8]

By 2025 the position had not changed. The head of Dront, Kayumov Askhat Abdurakhmanovich, continues to insist on preserving the floodplain as a protected natural area: "Floodplains have very diverse natural conditions — which is precisely why they support such a wealth of flora and fauna species."[9]

The Floodplain Today

In May 2025, Deputy Governor Sergey Morozov announced that investors were prepared to put more than 30 billion rubles into developing the floodplain, and that a new bridge across the Volga would increase its attractiveness to developers. The Bor municipal administration clarified, however, that neither the bridge itself nor its approaches were planned to be situated within the Bor Floodplain.[9]

By May 2026, "Russian Manhattan" had definitively passed into the realm of urban legend: more than fifteen years had elapsed since the idea first appeared, its cost is now retrospectively estimated at 100 billion dollars, and construction has never begun. The commercial district Strelka City on the Strelka itself — more than twenty buildings of up to 60 storeys at a cost of roughly four billion dollars — found itself in the same company of unfulfilled visions: it was abandoned when Nizhny Novgorod was awarded the FIFA World Cup and a stadium began to be built on the Strelka.[7]

Sources

  1. NIA "Nizhny Novgorod" — Implementation of the Globe Town project may begin in 2013
  2. Vremya N — The Globe Town project will give new impetus to Nizhny Novgorod's development — V. Shantsev (archive)
  3. NIA "Nizhny Novgorod" — The original version of the Bor Floodplain development project has been shelved — Sergey Popov (archive)
  4. tvoy-bor.ru — Tvoy Bor — What became of the Globe Town project in the Bor Floodplain (archive)
  5. V gorode N — The "Nizhny" parkograd instead of Globe Town: a new development project for the Bor Floodplain unveiled (archive)
  6. V gorode N — A parkograd is planned for the Bor Floodplain near Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
  7. V gorode N — Unfulfilled hopes: seven grand projects that were never realized in Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
  8. Dront Eco-Center — Ecological Center "Dront" — Paradise, hell, parkograd: environmentalists on development of the Bor Floodplain (archive)
  9. GIPERNN — A new bridge across the Volga will boost the investment potential of the Bor Floodplain (archive)