Almaz

Rodnik LLC opened Almaz on November 14, 2015 at the intersection of Kopeysk Highway and Meridian Road in Chelyabinsk’s Leninsky district, using Turkish contractor Yenigun to build a 222,000 sqm structure, of which roughly 92,000 sqm is leasable retail area. The opening set an occupancy record for that year’s Russian mall launches: 78 percent of its space was leased on opening day, the highest rate recorded for a 2015 Russian mall launch, climbing to 98 percent within twelve months.

Lenta anchors the grocery side, with Lemana PRO (the rebranded name Leroy Merlin’s Russian business adopted after its French parent divested) running the DIY floor and M.Video carrying electronics, alongside Detsky Mir. The opening tenant mix also included H&M and multiple Inditex banners, including Zara Home and Massimo Dutti, though both chains have since exited the Russian market. The project brought several brands to Chelyabinsk Oblast for the first time at launch, among them LC Waikiki, Natura Siberica, Koton and Mohito.

At roughly 200-plus stores across three floors, Almaz runs a multiplex cinema, a bowling alley and an ice rink alongside the retail floor, an entertainment layer built to hold shoppers longer than a typical Chelyabinsk center of its era. Construction itself was disruptive enough to draw local attention: traffic in the Leninsky district backed up on opening day as crowds converged on the highway intersection the center sits on.

That immediate, above-market occupancy at launch set Almaz apart from most large-format Russian mall openings, where leasing typically ramps up over one to two years rather than arriving mostly complete on day one, and it has held its position as Chelyabinsk’s largest concept mall since.