Yacht Club on the Rowing Canal — a facility under construction for the berthing and technical servicing of small and medium-sized vessels on the embankment of the Rowing Canal in Nizhny Novgorod. The site lies closer to the canal's outlet, opposite houses no. 356A–380 of the Pechyory sloboda in Nizhegorodsky District, diagonally across from Artyomovskiye Luga on the left bank of the Volga [1][2]. The club is being built by Dorinvest LLC, Dorinvest, owned by former Deputy Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region Anton Averin [1][4]. The allocation of a 38,300-square-metre plot was preliminarily approved as far back as 2008; a construction permit was issued in 2014; a fence around the site has been in place since 2016; and the first two club buildings were completed in 2025 [1][3][6].
What surrounds the site
The club's fence runs along the right bank of the canal between the Volga yacht club and a private pier; until 2024, the Turist boat station operated nearby, whose boathouses were demolished by court order [4][10]. The bank here is narrow: on one side lies the canal water, on the other — the carriageway of the embankment and the slope leading up to the Pechyory sloboda [16].
The area is well-frequented. The roughly seven-kilometre-long waterfront strip remained largely undeveloped until recently, and people come to the canal to run, cycle, and sunbathe; on the same bank operates the city's best-known nudist beach, whose presence periodically provokes complaints from athletes training nearby [5][15]. In late 2020, the City Duma's ecology commission discussed the fate of the canal's public beach: its 2019 landscaping had cost 9 million rubles instead of the planned 24.6 million, some of the structures were dismantled by unknown persons as early as January, and the authorities were choosing between repairing it at their own expense and transferring the beach to a private investor [13].
The Rowing Canal: how this place came to be
Until the 1970s, the site of the canal was occupied by the Pechorskaya volozhka — a branch of the Volga running between the bank and Pechorskiye Peski island. In 1976, during the stabilisation of the slopes near Pechersky Monastery, the old channel was straightened and the Rowing Canal was built: a dam connected the bank to the island, turning it into a peninsula [7][15].
The result was a body of water 100–150 metres wide and up to five metres deep, with a predominantly sandy bottom; the artificial concrete dam runs for 1,200 metres, and the right-bank embankment is concreted along 2,800 metres. There is no current in the canal, so its water is noticeably warmer than the Volga's [15].
The embankment was brought into order for the city's 800th anniversary: the section from the descent off Krasnaya Sloboda Street to its junction with the Podnove settlement, covering a total area of 36.55 hectares, was landscaped on commission from the ANO Tsentr 800, with OOO Gorstroy serving as the contractor [16]. At the same time, the judges' tower was restored — the embankment's dominant structure, built in 1988 for the Second All-Union Youth Rowing Games to a design by architects Sergey Kasatkin and Yury Kartsev; the reconstruction was carried out by the Nizhny Novgorod bureau Gora [8].
Rowing on the canal
Rowing in Nizhny Novgorod Region began in 1926 with sections attached to factories and sports societies. The scattered groups were consolidated into a unified system, and in 1968 a youth sports school for academic rowing was established in Gorky. With the opening of the canal in 1976, the first official competitions were held here, and by 1988 the bank had a judges' tower and an Olympic village for athletes [7][8].
Today the regional Olympic reserve sports school for rowing trains on the canal. In 2026, Nizhny Novgorod rowing marked its centenary: an outdoor exhibition titled "On the Crest of the Wave," comprising 80 photographs, opened at the corner of Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street and Piskunova Street, and veteran rower Igor Bazhenov presented an oar to the school's student Milana Alekseyeva [7].
The development of the riverbank will not affect the rowing school, according to Governor Gleb Nikitin's assurances: its material and technical facilities are planned for expansion, and in late 2025 the Regional Ministry of Sport spoke of an architectural design for a modernization project currently being prepared. The parents of young rowers are more cautious and fear that part of the school's grounds will be given over to commercial development [5].
How many yacht clubs are on the canal, and which one is being discussed
The word "yacht club" is claimed by several establishments and projects on the Rowing Canal, and they are not all equal: two clubs are operating, one is under construction, and three more never made it off the drawing board or were repurposed. This article is about the yacht club under construction by Dorinvest LLC, not about the operating clubs Fregat and Leto on the Pechyorskiye Peski peninsula [4][5][6].
Sailing as a sport is nearly absent from this picture. The 2026 membership list of the Nizhny Novgorod Region Sailing Federation includes Oka and Chayka in Nizhny Novgorod, the Yu. Ye. Sedakov Club, and Belaya Rechka in Gorodets — not one of them on the Rowing Canal; the region's network of sports and tourism yacht harbors also bypasses the canal, running instead through Gorodets, Lyskovo, Pavlovo, Sokolskoye, and Rabotki [14]. On the canal, a "yacht club" more often means a motorboat marina with a restaurant, gazebos, and a hotel.
| Name | Location | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dorinvest LLC Club | Opposite buildings No. 356A–380 in the Pechyory sloboda | Berthing and servicing of small and medium vessels; the company owns a boathouse of 324 square meters, a technical building, two fences, sports courts, roads, and boat storage areas [3] | Under construction since 2016; two buildings completed in 2025 [6] |
| "Fregat" | Pechyorskiye Peski Peninsula | A pier with floating landing stages, glamping, banquet halls, mini-golf, marquees, and waterside gazebos [5] | In operation; a sports and wellness center opened in 2025 [5][6] |
| "Leto" | Pechyorskiye Peski Peninsula | A club on the canal bank [5] | In operation [5] |
| "Volga" | Rowing Canal Embankment, adjacent to the Dorinvest site | Boat moorings [4] | In operation [4] |
| "Rybachy" | Rowing Canal Embankment, 10 | A yacht club whose structures were ruled illegal [5] | Demolished by court order; a tourism complex called "Tri Stikhii" (Three Elements) is being planned for the 4.89-hectare plot [5] |
| Bereg LLC | Rowing Canal Embankment, 20 | The plot was leased in 2005; in 2009, plans were announced for a yacht club, boat station, tennis court, sports hall, and guest house [12] | Over fifteen years, two cottages and a court were built; since 2024 the plot is managed by Glorax [12] |
| Khoreka-NN LLC (Stolitsa Nizhny group) | 12.4 hectares between Georgievsky Descent, the Aleksandrovsky Sad hotel, and the road to Robinson Restaurant | A sports and wellness complex with a yacht club [11] | Not built; the lease was terminated in 2020 [11] |
A project begun in 2008
The allocation of the plot was provisionally approved by the investment council under Governor Valery Shantsev in August 2008; the declared investment in creating the club was 29.5 million rubles at the time [3].
After that, the project stalled. In 2010, Anton Averin, who was then a deputy of the City Duma, publicly complained that the City Hall of Vadim Bulavinov was deliberately blocking his projects. After urban planning powers were transferred to the regional government and Bulavinov lost the next mayoral election, the investor received a land lease in 2011 and in 2014 obtained a construction permit for the developed project [3].
The permit was issued in accordance with Article 51 of the Urban Planning Code of the Russian Federation and was valid until June 20, 2017. The area of the allocated land plot is 38,300 square meters, nearly four hectares [1].
A fence without a permit
On December 16, 2016, the Department of Administrative-Technical and Municipal Control of the Nizhny Novgorod City Administration fined LLC "Dorinvest" 50,000 rubles: the construction fence on the site had been erected without the required permit order. As of March 2017, the violation had not been remedied [1].
An order (permit) is a document authorizing the fencing off of a construction site for the duration of works when the site contains objects that pose a danger to the life and health of outsiders. The developer was unable to produce such an order, and the site itself lies within the Volga's water protection zone, where economic activity is restricted under Article 65 of the Water Code of the Russian Federation [1][2].
It should be noted that the developer must officially apply to the Department of Administrative-Technical and Municipal Control for an order to erect a construction fence
Logging debris and soil dumps
On April 4, 2017, specialists from the Rosprirodnadzor Department for the Volga Federal District inspected the territory of the Volga's water protection zone on the Rowing Canal embankment opposite houses No. 356A–380 in the Pechyory settlement. During the inspection they established that the general contractor, LLC GK "Yuton," was conducting construction of a yacht club there: trees and shrubs had been felled, logging debris was being stockpiled within the water protection zone, and soil dumps were recorded on the territory [2].
These facts indicated a violation of Article 65 of the Water Code of the Russian Federation, for which Part 1 of Article 8.42 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation provides for fines of 3,000 to 4,500 rubles for individuals, 8,000 to 12,000 rubles for officials, and 200,000 to 400,000 rubles for legal entities. The Department opened an administrative investigation [2].
The inspection took place following publications by Koza.Press, which was the first to name the owner of the construction site; reports and photographs from the site were made by the outlet's editor Slavina Irina [1][2].
Who owns the construction site
OOO Dorinvest was registered in Nizhny Novgorod in 2004 with a share capital of 10,000 rubles; its primary line of business is the construction of roads and highways, and in 2017 its director was listed as Oksana Sergeyevna Mironova. The company is registered at Pamirskaya Street, 11 — an important detail, since there are five companies named "Dorinvest" registered in the Region, and it is this particular firm that is carrying out the club's construction [1][2].
The founder is Anton Valeryevich Averin. In 2017, when he was Deputy Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region, he owned 100% of the company; by April 2024 he held 76% among the listed founders [1][4]. From 9 March 2016, the registry records a trustee manager — Aksinin Vyacheslav Borisovich, a deputy of the Legislative Assembly [1][3].
Averin held the post of Deputy Governor from 2010 and left it in 2018; after departing from the government he has been heading major construction companies in the region [4].
The court battle over the land
Under the investment agreement, the club was supposed to be delivered at the end of 2018. A month before Averin left the team of Governor Gleb Nikitin, the Region's government decided to recover 1.3 million rubles in penalties from Dorinvest for missing the deadlines, but the court found that the authorities had missed the statute of limitations [3].
In early 2020, the Ministry of Property and Land Relations refused to privatize the site, concluding that the firm had no right to obtain the plot without a tender and that the permitted use of the land did not match the investor's goals; officials also pointed out that the area of the requested plot significantly exceeded the area of the real estate standing on it. On September 25, 2020, the Nizhny Novgorod Region Arbitration Court sided with the company and ordered the ministry to sell it the 3.8 hectares it was leasing [3].
The court took into account that Dorinvest owns a boathouse of 324 square meters, a utility building, two fences, sports grounds, roads, and areas for storing watercraft, and that the company submitted an expert opinion from the University of Architecture and Civil Engineering: by zoning, the site is suited to a yacht club, and normal operation of a club requires at least five hectares, so 3.8 hectares is not excessive for the project. Judge Andrey Leonov noted that the ministry had presented no written evidence that the area was disproportionate and had offered no legal justification [3].
This problem was not resolved through administrative channels, and it had to be resolved in court. The reasons are mainly the size of the land plot and the regulations
The Seventh Year Behind the Fence
By April 2024, the three-meter fence on the Rowing Canal embankment had stood for a seventh year in a row — wooden, solid, between the Volga yacht club and a private pier. According to boaters, two-story cottages and a helipad can be seen on the construction site [4].
Averin himself told a NewsNN correspondent that construction of the yacht club was planned to be completed in 2025, and that the pandemic and sanctions had affected the pace of work [4]. Four years earlier, when the court ordered the Region to sell him the land, the entrepreneur declined to talk about the fate of the construction project, saying he does not comment on his business projects [3].
What Had Been Built by 2026
In 2025, construction of two Dorinvest yacht club buildings was completed. In the same year, a sports and wellness center of the limited liability company Yacht Club Fregat was commissioned on the Pecherskiye Peski peninsula [6].
By this time, the club had ceased to be the only construction project on the waterfront: more than a dozen projects had been announced for the canal and Pechyorskiye Peski — an oceanarium, the Volzhsky ski complex, a thermal eco-park, the H2O hotel with 300 rooms, a wellness complex, a new opera house, a glamping park, a science center, and two integrated area-development projects with residential housing[5][6].
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| August 2008 | The Investment Council under Governor Valery Shantsev preliminarily approved the allocation of the plot; the declared investment was 29.5 million rubles [3] |
| 2010 | Anton Averin, then a City Duma deputy, publicly complained that the City Hall of Vadim Bulavinov was blocking his projects [3] |
| 2011 | Dorinvest obtained the right to lease the plot [3] |
| 2014 | A building permit was issued [3] |
| December 16, 2016 | A fine of 50,000 rubles for a construction fence erected without a permit order [1] |
| March 2, 2017 | Koza.Press reveals to whom the plot was given and on what terms [1] |
| April 4, 2017 | Rosprirodnadzor documents tree felling, logging debris, and piles of soil in the water protection zone [2] |
| June 20, 2017 | The building permit expires [1] |
| 2018 | The Region's government decides to recover 1.3 million rubles in penalties for missed deadlines; the statute of limitations turned out to have lapsed [3] |
| September 25, 2020 | The Arbitration Court obliges the ministry to sell the company 3.8 hectares [3] |
| April 2024 | For the seventh year the site has been closed off by a three-meter fence; Averin promises to finish the club in 2025 [4] |
| 2025 | Two buildings of the club are completed [6] |
The Contested Shore
The club's construction is not the only dispute over rights to the canal's shoreline. The Association of Small Boat Owners "Turist," which united about three hundred families, occupied a stretch of shoreline of roughly 7.5 hectares and cited a 1978 decision of the Gorky City Council to allocate the plot for indefinite use. In 2004 the city administration declared that document no longer valid; in late 2022 the regional arbitration court ruled that the 1978 decision could not serve as a title document, since it was only the initial stage of the land-allocation procedure, and that the association had not proven that it was the legal successor of the former boat station [9].
On January 17, 2024, heavy machinery arrived at the Rowing Canal and demolition began. During the work a confrontation broke out with the owners of the structures: an unidentified substance was sprayed, and three employees of a private security company suffered moderate eye burns. The regional property ministry insisted that the station had been placed there without authorization, without formalizing any ownership rights, and that the organization had had more than one opportunity to register the plot properly [10]. By autumn 2025, former owners of the demolished boathouses were still fishing at the site, while the plot itself had gone to a Moscow developer for comprehensive development [5].
The story of the Rybachy yacht club at 10 Rowing Canal Embankment is similar: the land council approved the allocation of the plot for a tourist complex back in 2020, but the club did not demolish its buildings, and the site had to be cleared through the courts [5].
Another plot — 20 Rowing Canal Embankment — was leased in 2005 by the company Bereg LLC, which in 2009 asked for permission to build a yacht club, a boat station, a tennis court, a sports hall, and a guest house on it. The Ministry of Property approved the construction, but over fifteen years the plot acquired two elite cottages and a court, and the address came to be listed as the premium hotel "Residence Bereg." Among the firm's first founders were the ex-wife of former Nizhny Novgorod mayor Oleg Sorokin, Elada Nagornaya, and former Legislative Assembly deputy Felix Verkhovodov; at the end of 2020 the company passed to Pavlovo businessman Konstantin Tuvykin, and since 2024 the investor has been Gloraks, which plans premium-class housing, schools, kindergartens, and a scenic bridge costing 20 billion rubles [12].
The third club that never materialized belonged to Khoreka-NN LLC: in 2008 the company leased 12.4 hectares between the Georgievsky Descent, the Aleksandrovsky Sad hotel, and the road to the Robinzon restaurant for a sports and wellness complex with a yacht club. In more than ten years neither the complex nor the club was built; the lease was terminated in 2020, and in 2021 the arbitration court ordered the regional government to pay 6.5 million rubles in unjust enrichment — fees for infrastructure the investor never used [11].
The governor, too, has voiced doubts that this entire shoreline will be built up: during a live call-in with Nizhny Novgorod residents in December 2024, he spoke about the credit market and interest rates, which could slow down or entirely derail some of the hotel projects on the Rowing Canal [5].
Some are only planned, and there's no guarantee they will be realized. To put it plainly, you want to say: we should pray that they get realized
Address of the yacht club site
- Nizhny Novgorod, embankment of the Rowing Canal opposite buildings No. 356A–380 of the Pechyory settlement, Nizhegorodsky District [1][2];
- the developer's registered address is Nizhny Novgorod, Pamirskaya Street, 11 [1].
Sources
- Koza Press — Firm of Deputy Governor Averin received almost 4 hectares of land for a yacht club on the Rowing Canal in Nizhny Novgorod
- NIA Nizhny Novgorod — Rosprirodnadzor found violations in the construction of a yacht club on the Rowing Canal in Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
- Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — business newspaper — Yachtsmen sailed to court (archive)
- Govorit Nizhny — Nizhny Novgorod news agency (based on NewsNN materials) — Former Deputy Governor Averin has been building a yacht club on the Rowing Canal for seven years (archive)
- GIPERNN — Nizhny Novgorod magazine on real estate and urban development — How is the Rowing Canal in Nizhny Novgorod being built up? A detailed map for the first time (archive)
- NIA Nizhny Novgorod — overview of embankment development projects — What they want to build on the Rowing Canal in Nizhny Novgorod: the full list
- nobl.ru — Government of Nizhny Novgorod Region — official website — An outdoor exhibition "On the Crest of the Wave. One Hundred Years of Nizhny Novgorod Rowing" has opened in Nizhny Novgorod
- nn.aif.ru — Argumenty i Fakty — Nizhny Novgorod — The judges' tower on the Rowing Canal has been restored in Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
- Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — on the boat station's dispute with the authorities — "Turist" is not floating off (archive)
- nn.aif.ru — Argumenty i Fakty — Nizhny Novgorod — Demolition of illegal structures has begun on the Rowing Canal (archive)
- Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — on the unrealized yacht club project — Yacht club developer recovered more than 6 million rubles from the Nizhny Novgorod government (archive)
- Govorit Nizhny — on the fate of the site at 20 Rowing Canal Embankment — The yacht club on the Rowing Canal is turning into an elite residential complex (archive)
- Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod) — on the city beach on the canal — The beach on the Rowing Canal may be transferred to an investor (archive)
- fps-nn.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Sailing Federation — register of the region's yacht clubs and marinas — Nizhny Novgorod Yacht Clubs (archive)
- autotravel-nn.ru — "Sights of Nizhny Novgorod Region" — local history guide — The Rowing Canal in Nizhny Novgorod — the Pechyorskaya Volozhka (archive)
- gordumannov.ru — City Duma of Nizhny Novgorod — landscaping project record — Rowing Canal Embankment (archive)