Kopelouzos’s estate grows
The Kopelouzos group, big in energy, is expanding into real estate, building office blocks and residential homes on properties it has long owned. Besides the three office blocks recently completed on Kifissias Avenue, near Sidera Halandriou in Athens, Kopelouzos Real Estate is expected to complete early next year a 2,300-square-meter, eight-story office block at the corner of Vassileos Constantinou and Amynta streets, near the Panathenaic Stadium. The firm is already looking for leaseholders for its office blocks, an indication it is seeking to create a strong portfolio of properties in commercial use, appropriate to be counted as assets of a real estate investment company that meets the specifications for listing on the bourse. Sources say the plan involves current discussions with banks. The state of the market is such at present, however, that the search for leaseholders is running into difficulties, particularly in the upmarket segment of Kifissias Avenue. The three office blocks in Halandri, totaling 22,000 square meters, have yet to be leased, but the company says it is willing to wait a few months more without lowering prices. As regards residential properties, the group recently started constructing 26 luxury holiday homes totaling 2,730 square meters on a 3.7-hectare area in Pyrgaki, on the island of Naxos. The project is expected to be completed next year. A similar but smaller project is planned in the Kanalia area of Myconos. In the Athens area, the firm is also constructing a complex of three four-story luxury apartment blocks in the district of Nea Filothei – Maroussi, very near the Olympic Stadium and Ygeia hospital. Another project involves the refurbishment of a four-story neoclassical mansion for commercial use in the area of Thiseion; completion has been held back by the pedestrianization of the area.
