Mykolaiv is once again seeking design contractors to renovate 68 buildings with funding from the World Bank

The aftermath of the Russian shelling of Mykolaiv on 19 July 2024, photo: NikVesti

In Mykolaiv, the selection process is underway for consultants who will develop restoration projects for 68 blocks of flats as part of the «HOPE» programme, funded by the World Bank.

By the end of 2027, the city plans to have the finalised project documentation for each building, after which it will proceed to procure the construction works, Ihor Nabatov, deputy director of the city council’s housing and utilities department, told NikVesti.

According to him, the city is currently conducting nine procurement procedures — the results of which will be used to select consultants to develop the building restoration designs.

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All participants are screened in accordance with World Bank procedures in three stages: first, companies submit documents to confirm their qualifications; then they submit technical and financial proposals; after which negotiations take place and a contract is signed.

«We are currently in either the first or second round of all nine procurement processes,» said Ihor Nabatov.

According to the official, only Ukrainian companies are currently participating in the procurement processes, with the exception of the Japanese company Denzai.

Once the consultants have been selected, they must prepare several preliminary design options for each building, which will be agreed with the client and residents. The consultant must then draw up the full project documentation, organise the expert review and prepare the technical specifications for the future contractor.

«By the end of 2027, we should have a fully designed cluster for each building,» said Ihor Nabatov.

After that, tenders for the construction work will be announced via the World Bank’s STEP procurement platform, he added.

Earlier, the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development of Ukraine explained to NikVesti that the procurement process to select contractors for the design of projects to rebuild destroyed residential buildings in Mykolaiv had been restarted due to the requirements for tender participants. The possibility of easing the conditions for participation in the procurement process is currently being considered, but for this to happen, the city council must submit a corresponding proposal to the World Bank.

HOPE: Housing Reconstruction in Mykolaiv

In 2025, it was announced that Mykolaiv would receive 150 million hryvnias from the World Bank to develop design and cost estimate documentation for the restoration of apartment blocks as part of the «Housing Repair for the Restoration of People’s Rights and Opportunities HOPE». The design work will be carried out not on a building-by-building basis, but in clusters. Each of the 21 clusters comprises between 2 and 5 multi-storey buildings that have been damaged.

Initially, the plan was to develop reconstruction designs for 54 buildings, but this number is now being increased to 69.

NikVesti asked the city authorities whether they would be able to rebuild the residential buildings in accordance with the developed plans before the plans’ validity period expires. They replied that they were not sure whether they would manage to rebuild all the blocks by 2027. However, Mykolaiv’s mayor, Oleksandr Sienkevych, expects that once the project documentation for the restoration of the high-rise blocks has been drawn up, the World Bank will also fund their reconstruction.

Read also the article by NikVesti «Reconstruction or just paperwork: how Mykolaiv will spend 150 million hryvnias from the World Bank».

It later emerged that this list included at least four blocks for which design and cost estimate documentation had already been drawn up — as reported in the NikVesti article «Reconstruction projects for four buildings in Mykolaiv will be commissioned twice: why this happened and how the authorities will avoid duplication».

The Department of Housing and Communal Services explained that the projects already drawn up by the city include stabilisation measures, whereas the «HOPE» project focuses on energy efficiency and urban regeneration.

«In any case, our projects are more narrowly focused than those to be developed under «HOPE», they added.

As of November 2025, tenders were still underway to select designers for the major refurbishment of the apartment blocks included in the «HOPE» programme.