Michaniki’s realty plans
Construction company Michaniki, one of Greece’s biggest, is extending its interest in real estate development in the growing markets of Eastern Europe, where it has established a presence in public projects for a number of years now, according to the company’s investment adviser, Giorgos Koukopoulos. In Greek Square, in Ukraine’s Black Sea city of Odessa, Michaniki recently completed a complex of 77 apartments and 16 shops, with additional office facilities. It also expects to complete a six-story shopping mall in the same square early next year, with a large underground car park. Further, in the country’s capital, Kiev, Michaniki has acquired four centrally located land plots which it plans to develop for residential and commercial uses. Bulgaria is another pole of Michaniki’s interest. It has acquired a 1.7-hectare plot of land on the highway leading from Sofia to the city’s airport and is currently considering development plans. Koukopoulos says Bulgaria’s real estate market is facing positive prospects in view of the country’s scheduled entry to the European Union in 2007. In Greece itself, Koukopoulos says Michaniki is following a selective policy in property development projects. One such project is for the construction of 53 luxury houses on a 3-hectare land plot of Greece’s Young Women’s Christian Association in the upmarket northern Athens suburb of Ekali. The 17-million-euro project is divided into three residential blocks, the first with 23 houses, the second with six and the third with 24. Further, the company is conducting a feasibility study on developing a 13-hectare land plot on the island of Corfu.
