A university instead of a golf club in Kyiv: why Milovanov’s project is under threat
The Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA) has recently twice refused a request from the president of the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE), Tymofiy Milovanov, to issue planning conditions and restrictions for the construction of a new university campus on the site of the golf club in Obolon.
The main reason is that the construction contravenes Kyiv’s General Plan. The site is classified as a public green space, where the erection of permanent structures is prohibited
Consequently, the $18 million project is at risk of being blocked on legal grounds due to data in the Unified State Electronic System for Construction (USESC).
A university at the Obolon golf club: what is known about this project
On 29 April 2025, Tymofiy Milovanov, head of the Kyiv School of Economics, announced that the university had purchased a golf club in the capital. The value of the deal was reported as $18 million. At the time, Milovanov claimed that the site would become the campus of his private educational institution.
In May 2025, the civil society initiative ‘Holka’ analysed the documents and discovered that building a campus on the grounds of ‘Natalka’ Park in the capital is currently against the law. Milovanov was aware of this, as the deal was handled and advised on – including on land issues – by lawyers from ‘Vasyl Kisil & Partners’. Lawyers of this calibre know exactly what the law permits and what it does not in this area, and therefore put it very clearly: they helped to buy the golf club.
After the purchase of the golf club, Milovanov made no secret of the fact that it is currently impossible to build the campus purchased by the Kyiv School of Economics on this site. In May 2025, in an interview with Interfax, he explicitly stated that he would submit documents to the Kyiv City Council to change the designated use of the plot and, according to his estimates, the entire procedure would take 5–7 years. At the same time, however, Milovanov hoped that classes at the new campus would begin as early as January 2026. As we can see, this did not happen.
Why it is impossible to build a campus on the golf club’s grounds
The Kyiv School of Economics – or, to be more precise, Milovanov’s American company – purchased the corporate rights to the ‘KSG’ company via a Cypriot offshore entity and, along with these, acquired the already-built golf centre and two lease agreements covering approximately 5 hectares of municipal land in ‘Natalka’ Park. The lease agreements set out the tenant’s obligations, including the requirement to use the plots for their intended purpose.
The first plot was allocated for ‘the construction, subsequent operation and maintenance of the golf centre in the “Natalka” Culture and Recreation Park’.
The second plot was granted ‘for the expansion of the golf centre’s territory in the Natalka area’.
The Kyiv School of Economics is obliged to use the plots for the golf centre. Of course, they are entitled to dream or hope of one day building a new campus there. But if the institution has stated that it will build a campus there, this is a frank admission of a breach of its contractual obligations.
In the event of a breach, the Kyiv City Council will be obliged to terminate the lease agreements and require the Kyiv School of Economics to demolish the golf centre’s buildings and return the plots of land. Therefore, given these circumstances, it is unlikely that academic buildings will be constructed on the site of the golf club, as Milovanov dreams of.
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