First major Elliniko deal drops

Lamda Development announced on Tuesday the first major commercial agreement in retail for the Eliniko project, with Fourlis SA as the strategic partner. The deal concerns a large section of the old Athens airport plot, next to one of the two malls Lamda intends to develop, near Vouliagmenis Avenue.

Lamda and Fourlis agreed to the creation of “a unique retail park within the mall, consisting of large-surface stores, known also as big-box stores.”

The total investment in the retail park is estimated at 55 million euros, and it will practically constitute an extension to Lamda’s 70,000-square meter shopping center on Vouliagmenis. That amount concerns both the purchase of the land and the construction and development of the retail park. The land acquisition is being made through Trade Estates, the real estate arm of Fourlis whose portfolio is now considerably enriched. The total area of the retail park will come to 30,000 sq.m.

Some 12,000 sq.m. of that area will be occupied by an IKEA store, a chain that is operated by Fourlis in Greece, while the Intersport big box will be particularly large. There will also be cooperation with other brands to be hosted in the “big boxes.”

“We are excited that with the signing of this unique cooperation, Elliniko is signaling a new era of growth and extrovert orientation for Greece. We will contribute to this project by creating a pioneering retail park with international leaseholders such as IKEA and Intersport,” said the chairman of the Fourlis Group, Vassilis Fourlis.

“As we have already said, the creation of cooperations with the very best in every field has a considerable role in the development of the project. In the field of retail parks, we could not have had a better partner than Fourlis SA, one of the greatest retailers in the Greek market,” stated Lamda Development’s chief executive officer Odisseas Athanasiou.

“We are particularly happy with this cooperation and we believe it will produce the biggest possible result so that we can supply to the Greek public commercial spaces the likes of which they have never seen before,” added the Lamda CEO.

Source:ekathimerini.com