Cityzen Expo brings together homes, green spaces, and modern amenities while preserving one of Tbilisi’s best-known historic exhibition sites. Pre-sales open on 22 October, with prices starting at $1,600 per square metre.
Some places become part of a city’s identity through the generations who visit them. Expo Georgia, on Tsereteli Avenue in Tbilisi, is one such place.
Its history dates back to 1957, when it housed its first exhibition. Between 1960 and 1971, it grew into a modernist ensemble of pavilions, tree-lined paths, pools, a greenhouse, and a park. Its architecture and artwork became part of the area’s distinctive character.
Now, developer Cityzen, part of the IG Development group, is presenting a new vision for the site. Cityzen Expo aims to bring new life to this familiar urban space while preserving what connects it to Tbilisi’s past.
‘We understand that many people hold Expo dear for its park, its architecture, its exhibitions, and their personal memories. That is why people want to know exactly what is planned’, Cityzen CEO Director Goga Machavariani says.
Machavariani said the project was designed to bring public, functional, and investment interests together in a way that would improve each facet.
Less development, more room for the city
The project is built around a commitment to keep new construction to a minimum. As Machavariani says, only 18% of the site is designated for development, with new buildings concentrated along its edges, in areas now occupied mainly by ramshackle buildings, warehouses, and offices. This space will accommodate housing as well as the City Mall Expo.
New buildings will line Stanislavski and Samtredia streets, on plots beyond the existing park and exhibition pavilions, with separate entrances. The park, including its trees, green spaces, and lake, will be preserved, and its recreational area will be expanded.
‘Expo Georgia is part of Tbilisi’s memory, which is why our main decision was to have less development and more space for the city’, Machavariani said.
Machavariani said vertical development would allow the buildings to occupy less land, helping preserve the site’s exhibition infrastructure and recreational spaces. He said the buildings have also been designed not to cast shade over the park.
Heritage with a future
Expo Georgia will retain its 10 working exhibition pavilions. The largest, Pavilion No 11, will be rebuilt in a new location as a modern, well-equipped pavilion twice its current size. Giorgi Chkonia, the project’s architect, said this would increase Expo Georgia’s scale and significance and make it the region’s main exhibition centre.
According to Machavariani, the new pavilion will be built before the existing one is dismantled, and Cityzen hopes to invite an internationally renowned architecture studio to design it.
The site’s mosaics, sculptures, and monuments will remain in place and be restored where needed, as will the decorative pool. The square featuring the ‘Flight of the Mind’ monument will reopen.
Expo’s traditional main entrance from Tsereteli Avenue will also be restored, with a new square laid out alongside it. A 10,000-square-metre landscaped courtyard is planned on the roof of the shopping centre, adding another green space.
For Chkonia, the starting point was the task of developing Expo Georgia as an exhibition complex while preserving its existing infrastructure and building on it, integrating it naturally and harmoniously with a modern development. He described this as both a fascinating idea and an architectural challenge: adding contemporary buildings to a site of such importance to the city without losing its function, character, or setting.
‘Our project will bring the old and the new together in such a way that both are ultimately improved. We based our main architectural idea on exactly that: connecting the old and the new organically, preserving the old and developing it further, and integrating a new component that will not harm the old, but will give it new possibilities and make it more appealing’, Chkonia says.
Open to everyone, during construction and after
The park and grounds will remain open to the public throughout construction. Work will take place at the edges of the site, separated from the areas where people walk by a protective barrier, while construction vehicles will use separate entrances from adjacent streets.
Machavariani said Cityzen had committed to keeping the site open to the public before the permitting process began, adding that this commitment is backed by a legal framework.
Chkonia said he wanted visitors to the renewed Expo to find a familiar, authentic, and cherished place, one that would be more comfortable, better equipped, better maintained, and more multifunctional.
‘Expo Georgia will remain public, open, and accessible to everyone at any time of day or night, both during construction and afterwards, just as it always has been’, Chkonia says.
A new chapter for Didube
Cityzen Expo is designed as a mixed-use destination in Tbilisi’s Didube district. Alongside its residential blocks, it will include a premium aparthotel and City Mall Expo, with shops, cafés, restaurants, a cinema, a swimming pool, a gym, a bank, a pharmacy, and children’s play areas, as well as an underground car park with 10 times the current parking capacity.
The complex sits between Tsereteli and Didube metro stations, with additional access from Stanislavski and Samtredia streets.
According to Chkonia, these facilities will benefit residents across Didube and the wider city.
‘Residents of the area will no longer need to travel far, even for shopping. That saves them time and is an effective way to ease the city’s traffic congestion’, Chkonia says.
Machavariani said the project’s success would be felt by people who live and work around Expo today, as well as those who use its park.
‘We believe this project will give new momentum to the development of the Didube district’, he added.
About Cityzen Expo
Cityzen Expo is a mixed-use development by Cityzen, part of the IG Development group. It comprises six residential blocks, a premium aparthotel, and City Mall Expo, alongside green and recreational spaces.
Pre-sales for apartments in Block A open on 22 October. For that day only, prices start at $1,600 per square metre with full payment. Apartments will be delivered in white-frame condition, with one-bedroom units starting from 53.8 square metres.
Contact: cityzen.ge | +995 32 250 70 70 | info@cityzen.ge
Sales office: 70 Vazha-Pshavela Street, Tbilisi.
_____________________________________
Paid for by: Cityzen Expo