Why build a skyscraper or shopping mall in a developing country when you can put up a small private city? That’s the thinking of Russia’s Renaissance Partners, which is currently building an insta-city in Kenya and has announced plans for another in the Congo. A note about the massive projects from the Moscow Times:

“The investment unit of Renaissance Group plans to build a 2,600-hectare city in the Democratic Republic of Congo as it seeks to benefit from Africa’s urbanization.

Renaissance Partners is working on a master plan for the new urban center after securing land outside Lubumbashi, the country’s second-largest city, Arnold Meyer, Renaissance Partners’ managing director for real estate in Africa, said in London.

‘The West has peaked in terms of economic growth and the new markets are in Africa,’ Meyer said. ‘And the main drivers of this growth in Africa are going to be cities.

Renaissance’s Lubumbashi project will be more than double the size of Tatu City, the $5 billion center that the firm is building from scratch outside the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.” (Thanks Marginal Revolution.)

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“The city will be called Tatu”: