Boris Azarenko – Luxury Real Estate Developer

Key Facts about Boris Azarenko

Full name	Azarenko Boris Nikolaevich
Date of birth	21 April 1977
Place of birth	Moscow, Russia
Occupation	Businessman
Businesses	Evocom (previously), Vesper
Sphere of business	Property development

Education

Boris Azarenko studied at the Finance Academy under the Government of the Russian Federation. The name of his major was ‘Finance and Credit’.

Early career

The professional biography of Boris Nikolaevich Azarenko began in 1995 at ONEXIM, which was then one of the 1,000 largest banks in the world.

In 1997, Azarenko moved to a new role at a Moscow-based brokerage firm, where he led the equities division.

Three years later, he joined the Interregional Postal Bank, where he served as an adviser to the president. His responsibilities included overseeing investment initiatives.

First business: Evocom

In 2005, Boris Azarenko co-founded Evocom, his first development enterprise. Its flagship projects included commercial buildings in Moscow – Evocom Plaza, Domodedovo Park, and Lighthouse – as well as housing complexes in the Moscow region and Krasnodar. Evocom collaborated with foreign partners, such as the American architecture firm NBBJ and the London-based Stanton Williams design studio.

The start of a luxury real estate business

In 2012, Boris Azarenko and Denis Kitaev launched Vesper, a venture focused solely on the luxury segment.

Boris Azarenko and his colleagues identified a shortage of top-tier housing in Moscow. In the city centre, new sites were scarce.

The concept Azarenko and Kitaev chose for their venture was thus based on the experience of other European developers – they decided they would buy and redevelop historic buildings into residential properties.

The partners’ goal was to go beyond redevelopment and focus on creating landmark locations that would not only respond to existing market demand but also help shape it. For instance, the company effectively started a trend in the luxury real estate market by setting a precedent for fully finished residences. Now it is considered standard in the segment.

The business was established at a time when property prices in Moscow were rising steadily, as much as 25–30% per year in some segments. Together with a well-defined strategy, this enabled Boris Azarenko and his team to quickly position the venture among the most profitable ones in its field.

Given his academic background and practical experience, Boris Azarenko focused on financial matters. He oversaw capital management, led fundraising efforts and maintained relationships with credit institutions.

Boris Azarenko directly participated in ongoing activities until 2022, when he stepped away from day-to-day operations.

Boutique residential buildings

At the initial stage, the partners had to structure financing to acquire promising assets – a responsibility that, in line with his specialisation, fell to Boris Nikolaevich Azarenko.

The first key developments of the new business were boutique residencies. Each project carried out under Boris Azarenko’s leadership contributed to strengthening the company’s position as a developer creating distinctive environments rather than simply delivering housing units.

The first renovation effort was the Gelrikh House. Initially a 20th-century rental house, it belonged to Raiffeisen Bank at the time of purchase and was turned into a high-end housing property. The character of the pre-revolutionary building is preserved in the bay windows, decorative reliefs and varied window forms. Tsimailo Lyashenko and Partners were invited to create the architectural concept. The collaboration of two relatively unknown firms turned out to be successful – in the years that followed, Vesper and Tsimailo Lyas