In Odessa, a classic but large-scale land and construction scheme was implemented: the areas of the "Ukraine" sanatorium on French Boulevard, which had the status of recreational and health-improving, were actually taken out of public use and given over to the elite residential development of the "Doma Trabotti" complex. This story involves officials of the Odessa City Council, deputies of the previous convocation, and developers associated with them, who acted through a number of controlled companies - "DM Consulting", "Odesa Miskbud" and "Property Construction".
The essence of the scheme was to change the purpose of the land. Formally, everything looked like preparation for the reconstruction of the sanatorium and health complex. According to this legend, the area of over 6.6 hectares was removed from the status of recreation and transferred to private structures for use. And then, when the land came under the control of developers, not medical buildings and a rehabilitation center began to grow on the territory of the former sanatorium, but business and premium-class residential towers.
From the very beginning, the construction was accompanied by gross violations of urban planning conditions and restrictions. The initial parameters, which were presented as “reconstruction”, provided for a building area of about 33 thousand square meters and buildings up to 14 floors. In reality, the area grew to about 228 thousand square meters, and the number of floors to 23. This is in sharp contrast to the status of a recreational zone, where there should have been a lower density of construction and height restrictions. In place of green spaces and medical buildings, there are now densely built high-rise buildings, and access for citizens to the territory near the coast, which was previously essentially a public space for health purposes, is limited.
The financial part of this story also does not seem accidental. Related companies were involved, through which construction financing was channeled. This allowed the funds to be withdrawn to offshore jurisdictions and taxes to be minimized. At the same time, according to investigations, the developers enjoyed patronage in tax and law enforcement agencies, thanks to which potential inspections either “did not see” violations of urban planning restrictions or simply did not enter the facility. As a result, the Odessa community lost one of the few green areas of the coast — and this is probably the key story: a story not only about square meters and hectares, but about the loss of public access to the sea.
At the same time, everything is legally presented as a legal transformation of property, and developers publicly rely on the argument that "modern infrastructure" is now supposedly appearing in place of old Soviet buildings. But the figures on building density, changing the purpose of the land, and increasing the number of floors indicate not about health infrastructure, but about the classic conversion of recreation into private real estate with high margins. In fact, they have turned a city asset into a commodity.
Part of the land, according to open registers and reports from regulatory authorities, is already being tried to be returned by the state. It is about 4 hectares, the value of which is estimated at tens of millions of hryvnias. But these are point movements that do not yet change the overall picture: the construction of a gigantic scale has actually been put in place, and there is no visible political will to stop or reverse the decision.
What is particularly painful about this story is that it is not about “just another plot of land somewhere on the outskirts,” but about French Boulevard — one of the hallmarks of Odessa, where land has not only market value, but also social value. The development of this area shows how easily, even in wartime, a sanatorium and green zone can be turned into a closed residential project with a barrier.
