OREANDA-NEWS. VTB has approved a credit line of up to RUB 850 million for Aleksandrovsky LLC, a unit of the Okhta Group of real estate development and management companies, for a project in Petrozavodsk.

Together with a RUB 906-million deal signed with Okhta Group company Osobnyak LLC to co-finance the construction of a residential building in St Petersburg, VTB Bank's total loans to the group's development projects will exceed RUB 1.7 billion.

The increased credit line will be available until the end of 2015.

Okhta Group will use the loans to finance the construction of residential blocks in the Aleksandrovsky development of Petrovskaya Sloboda, a brownfield mixed-use project in the historical and cultural centre of Petrozavodsk near Lake Onega.

The low-rise Aleksandrovsky development will stand on a landscaped area of over 2.1 hectares and will consist of three five-storey solid-cast brick buildings with 260 flats, a childcare centre and outdoor parking for 150 vehicles. The first stage of the project is due to complete in the second quarter and the second stage in the third quarter of 2015.

Petrovskaya Sloboda is a 21-hectare area of a former tractor plant. Okhta Group is applying a comprehensive approach to this brownfield development project, which means preserving historical structures while building new property and planning public spaces.