The FINANCIAL — AS Group Investment is one of the largest development corporations in the region. Recently, AS Georgia, its daughter company, entered the Georgian market with 170 million dollar investment in a project – DIRSI, located in Isani, on Shota Nadirashvili St. The residences, together with the main infrastructure, are already finished and fully functional. The company saw its sales increase by 150% in the past year, with 70% of the apartments that have been put on the market already realized.
Before DIRSI was launched, up to 15 meters deep of land was carefully studied and processed. The project in its final form will span 46 hectares of land. Initial investment was in the region of 170 million dollars – a 10 hectare residential complex. Further phases of the project will be dedicated to developing infrastructure, launching the biggest shopping mall in Tbilisi, a modern 15 hectare recreational park and an additional complex of similar size to the current one. All three of the aforementioned projects are set to launch in the nearest future. A hotel and a clinic are planned to be added as well. DIRSI also plans to construct a bridge connecting the complex with Ortatchala. Further down, the project will feature a 5 km boulevard, townhouses and villas.
Nino Kuprashvili, Head of the Marketing, Business Development and Sales Department of AS Georgia, shared the vision of the company and gave us an inside look into what has and will be done in the future.
“The location of the complex is very attractive – it has a lot of green space surrounding it, this region of the city is largely untapped and the company spent 170 million dollars on the investment. At the same time, 3 out of the 10 hectares on DIRSI’s current complex is made up of green zones.”
“The buildings themselves are of very high quality – they are able to withstand 9 decibel earthquakes, have strong sound and thermo insulation. This is one of the ways a development company can support the environment, as well as a drop in energy consumption correlating with reduced pollution.”
To support the environment, we have placed separate litter bins for plastic materials near every residence, which later goes to the factory and gets recycled. The same goes for paper used within our headquarters. In the future, we plan to add separate waste containers for many different materials, Kuprashvili stated.
“Our customer base is very diverse – around 44% are foreigners. For this reason, we thoroughly negotiated the terms with financial institutions in order to facilitate our customers’ relations with them.”
“Newcomers very much like the idea of having all the necessary commodities and infrastructure close by, which is one of the directions we are actively working on – opening the supermarket Goodwill and Italian cafe Cantina on DIRSI’s territory are one of the first steps we have taken in order to make the complex more self-sufficient, but this is only a minuscule part of what is to come.”
Projects like DIRSI contribute very positively to the development of suburban areas. This is especially beneficial for Isani, as there is every prerequisite for this district to thrive – it is within only a 7-minute drive from the city centre’s Freedom Square.
Kuprashvili highlighted AS Georgia’s philosophy when analyzing the attractiveness of a building complex to potential customers.
“We focus on making the life of residents as comfortable as possible. When choosing the location of their residence, customers mainly look to three factors, which all contribute very strongly to their final decision.”
First, they evaluate the location itself, how far it is from the centre or from their workplaces. Accordingly, our people’s perception is changing, albeit slowly, on how much of an advantage living in the centre offers, and what exactly they should perceive as too much distance from their workplace.
Most of our campaigns are oriented on changing people’s perspective on this issue, as suburban development is key to turning Tbilisi into a more welcoming and orderly city.
Secondly, they look at facilities their children are offered – DIRSI is working very actively to make the place more appealing for families. We have three children’s playfields on the territory, several stadiums, tennis courts, a large car-free zone and are developing a very large green space. At the same time, we managed to open a private kindergarten, which is very popular among our residents, have a public school within walking distance and are negotiating with several entities in order to open a private school.
Last but not least, people want to have all the necessary commodities as close as possible. We regularly ask our customers their opinion on what they wish to have at DIRSI, be it through phone-calls or through special boxes which are in every residence hall, where our residents report their feedback. A supermarket was highest on the wish list, so we contracted Goodwill. Next on the list was a pharmacy. Therefore we are currently negotiating with several pharmaceutical companies and will have a store open in no time.
DIRSI has more than adequate parking space and is adapted for pedestrians. We have a café on the territory which has special offers for our residents.
Kuprashvili also commented on AS Georgia’s construction crews, materials and necessary equipment: “AS Group Investment, besides developing real estate, produces high quality building materials, provides industrial infrastructure construction services etc. All of these services have extensive experience and history of success. Most of our materials and personnel are purchased from the AS Group Investment itself.”
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