The biggest project residential development that has ever been done in the Municipality of Filothei – Psychiko is designed by the businessman Giannis Papalekas. Having recently acquired a series of properties in the area, and installed the offices of his companies in a building in the new Psychiko, he succeeded in purchasing the last large free area in the area. This is the estate known to the residents of Psychiko as “Peanuts”, with an area of 8 acres. It is located in the heart of the area, in Faros and specifically on D. Vassiliou Avenue.
According to information from “K”, despite the fact that commercial uses are allowed on this street, and that is where most of Psychiko’s shops are located, the businessman has decided to proceed with a purely residential development by building dozens of apartments with a special architectural design. The demand for residences in the Municipality of Filothei – Psychiko is particularly strong and the offer is very limited, with the result that the sales prices recently, especially for newly built apartments, tend to approach or even exceed 10,000 euros per square meter. Given that the building factor in the area is one (1), this means that it can potentially build up to 8,000 square meters, which is indicated to correspond to 40 apartments of 200 square meters.
Although an application for the issuance of building permits has not yet been submitted due to some pending issues that are expected to be resolved in the near future, the first architectural plans have already been made and foresee very large apartments on the upper floors as well as some smaller ones on lower levels. At the same time, a multi-storey underground parking lot is planned, while care is taken to minimize the impact of the development on the environment and on the area’s traffic.
Today, the sales prices for newly built apartments approach or even exceed 10,000 euros per sq.m.
“It is an ambitious project due to its size, but it promises significant capital gains,” say real estate sources specializing in the area. The Papalekas interest companies acquired the estate from its owners, members Alexios family which is said to be connected to the family of the same name who sold about 300 acres with a small airstrip in Porto Heli to an Irish investor months ago.
The area in Psychiko remained reserved for a number of years, as it had been expropriated by the municipality, which, however, being unable to pay the relevant compensation, lost the property after successive appeals by its owners. That’s how it remained unexploited for decades, to now be connected to the plans for the largest residential development that has been done so far in the history of Psychiko. However, there are still some outstanding issues related mainly to dealing with problems that the property had acquired during its many years of adventure, such as the return of its rate to the rate applicable in the area and also its exemption from the obligation to contribute to land, legal circles explain who have dealt with the case.
The estate, on which there are indeed pistachio trees, is connected by the petitioners with the history and beginnings of the cultivation of this fruit in Greece, and in particular with the private owner of the Pavlidis chocolate industry, Dimitris Pavlidis, who around 1860 established a pistachio plantation on his estate in Psychiko. The plot of land that has come under the control of Yannis Papalekas’ interest companies is building block 16. This, together with building block 15, which decades ago housed the “Platon” kindergarten, is one of the last undeveloped areas in the area of Neo Psychikos.
