A Sportmaster sports goods hypermarket with a gross lettable area of 4,000 square meters is to open in the Respublika shopping and leisure mall being built in Kyiv, UTG consulting company Kyiv), an exclusive broker of the mall, has reported.

UTG said that the sports good hypermarket would be the largest one in Kyiv.

"We're interested in the Respublika mall thanks to its good location and the absence of our stores in this district of Kyiv," the report says, citing head of the marketing department of Sportmaster Ukraine, Maria Scherbina.

"The sports supermarket in the Respublika mall will be a strong anchor which will attract visitors to the mall. We're holding talks with various chains, but we selected the Sportmaster brand," Project Head at UTG Serhiy Zaika said.

As reported, the construction of the Respublika trade center with a total area of 298,000 square meters at 1, 1A and 1B Kiltseva Road (Kyiv ring road) was started in spring 2012. It will be commissioned in the fourth quarter of 2014.

The mall will have over 400 stores, and an entertainment section with a gross area of over 22,000 square meters. The Respublika mall will be part of the Respublika multifunctional complex with a gross area of 1.625 million square meters.

Megapoliszhylbud is the investor in the project. Kyiv-based Archimatika design bureau designed the concept for the center, while the Chapman Taylor international bureau designed its interior decoration concept.

The Ukrainian Trade Guild was set up in 2001. It specializes in providing comprehensive assistance to development projects.

Over the 12 years of its operation, 97 real estate facilities have been opened with the participation of the UTG, including the Ocean Plaza shopping mall (Kyiv), the Meganom shopping mall (Simferopol), the French Boulevard shopping mall (Kharkiv) and Global.UA (Zhytomyr).

The UTG is selecting leasers for facilities with a total lettable area of over 500,000 square meters.

Sportmaster, which operates on the retail and wholesale market in sports equipment and clothing, has over 400 stores in Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Ukraine.