How the former “Athens Heart” shopping mall turns into an office complex

By the end of the first semester 2024 the “green” bioclimatics on Piraeus 180 – 186 are expected to be completed and delivered to his new tenant. And if at first sight it does not appear to be more than another project to implement buildings in Attica, however, this “transformation” of offices has its interest. Because it is the reconstruction and upgrading of the former Athens Heart mall by Premia Properties. Thus, it is in the final line the completion of a modern office complex that will even house the central services of the Independent Public Revenue Authority (ADE, around 1,500 employees), following an agreement concluded with Premia Properties. According to the end of May, the rebuilt Athens Heart is delivered to AADE and the new office building (about 3,000 sq.m.) connected to the former shopping mall with a pedestrian bridge is also delivered to June. The total useful leased surface is 26,500 sq.m. This is an investment of EUR 60 million. The reconstruction of Athens Heart and construction of the new building next door is a total cost of 40m euros. Around 20m euros was the cost of purchasing buildings and land. But how did we get to this investment? Towards the end of 2022, it was announced that the property was owned by Premia Properties, for a price of 15.7m euros, in implementation of the decision by 31.8.2022 of a judicial decision confirming an Agreement for the Sanitation of Doreco S.A., owner of the Athens Heart mall. Doreco’s debt to the National Bank was 55m euros. Athens Heart was inaugurated in December 2008, i.e. at a time when the economic crisis had shown its first signs, a short time before the great fall in real estate prices with the greatest losses even being noted in business properties. As a result, the mall would not be able to reach a satisfactory level of traffic and revenue. The creator of the mall was Pasal, the interests of the family S. Theodoridis (Pasal, Sato) who had a liquidity problem and was led to a resolution process. Pasal was subsequently renamed Premia, in which new shareholders entered, raised the company and converted it into SNEAP (Anonymous Investment Company into Real Property), with a real estate portfolio of over 300m euros.