Innovation District IT Park in Lviv, the start of construction of the first phase of which is scheduled for this autumn, plans to attract loans from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in the amount of up to $100,000, the initiator of the project and its minority shareholders, Director of Galereja Centre Volodymyr Zhenchak has told Interfax-Ukraine.

On the sidelines of the conference Lviv IT Jazz 2019, held recently, he said that negotiations with these international financial institutions are currently underway.

Zhenchak expressed the hope that they could be successfully completed by the end of this year.

The head of the EBRD's Ukrainian office, Marina Petrov, on the sidelines of this conference, confirmed to the agency the fact of such negotiations. She said that the signing of preliminary lease agreements with future residents of the business park increases interest in this project.

During the conference on June 28, five IT companies in Lviv signed such agreements with one of the investors and the project developer – Galereja Center, which will deploy their offices in the business park: SoftServe, Intellias, N-iX, Perfectial and GlobalLogic.

Zhenchak told Interfax-Ukraine that the first phase with a construction area of 110,000 square meters and the cost of about $180 million is scheduled for completion in 24 months. He recalled that Canada's Brookfield & Partners is the majority shareholder of the project, and another investor is Horizon Capital.

According to the materials of IT Park, the first phase will include six eight-story office buildings, 18-story business center and a separate complex of computer laboratories of 2,000 square meters, a multifunctional center with food court, sports complex, an area for entertainment and shopping.

During the conference, an updated design of Innovation District IT Park wi