Kairat Boranbayev's Shopping Center to Become a Museum

A foreign investor and the Almaty Akimat will open a children's museum in the former Almaly shopping center, which belonged to Kairat Boranbayev, Orda.kz reports.

Akim Yerbolat Dosayev announced this at a session of the city Maslikhat.

Taking into account the support of the Head of State, starting in 2025, the first science museum for children in the CIS will be created in Almaty on the site of the former Almaly shopping center, together with Science Museum Singapore, said Yerbolat Dosayev.

Developing the museum with the foreign investor will reportedly cost the Almaty city budget 12.2 billion tenge.

The Singapore Science Centre, one of the city's most prominent museums with a 46-year history of supporting and popularising scientific research, will likely partner in the project.

The center's eight exhibition galleries currently house over 850 exhibits.

The underground Almaly shopping mall in Almaty's "golden square" was among Kairat Boranbayev's assets that the oligarch transferred to the state in 2023.

The premises and dome were severely damaged during the January events, and the management company initially expected to reopen it in September 2022.

Original Author: Nikita Drobny