The design of Viohalko park on Piraeus Street complete

The first Special Spatial Development Plan for Strategic Investments, for an area located within city limits, is ready and is expected to be submitted to the competent services for approval within June, so that the relevant Presidential Decree can be issued. It concerns an area of ​​the Viohalko group, which plans the implementation of a model pole of culture, education, leisure, tourism and trade in an area of ​​about 7.2 hectares, in the vicinity of Eleonas, where the first facilities of the group were established, in 1937.

In fact, a few days ago, by decision of the Deputy Minister of Environment and Energy Mr. Nikos Tagaras, the permitted land uses and the special terms and restrictions of construction in two listed buildings within the “Vihalko” Greek Copper and Aluminum Industry complex at the subsidiary of Noval Property, at 252 Piraeus Street, in Tavros.

In particular, with the promoted change, the two buildings are now allowed to create restaurants (up to 25% of the total construction) and refreshments (up to 25%), recreation areas (up to 25% of the building) as well as offices, museum, virtual reality room, etc. Inside the listed buildings, the preservation of legally existing industrial and craft units is also allowed.

Also, a protection zone is defined – at least 10 meters – around the perimeter of the buildings as an uncovered area, which on the face of Piraeus Street extends to the building line and in the southwestern part follows the boundary of the property. The investment, with a budget of 120 million euros that will be developed in the property, is planned to give new life to the industrial space, giving about 30% of the area in free spaces and in a network of sidewalks and bicycle paths.

Today, according to Noval Property, the complex includes 25 industrial buildings with a total area of ​​43,868 sq.m. on a plot of 72,568 sq.m.. The buildings are mainly ground floor and 4 of them have an additional one or two floors. The expected development is expected to include office uses, culture, technology – research, etc. total area 56,740 sq.m., additional sports facilities 3,500 sq.m. and underground parking spaces 22,620 sq.m.

Emblematic Piraeus street

The factory road, Piraeus Street, from the middle of the 19th century, and in the years of industrialization that followed until the 1970s, due to the direct connection with the port, was an industrial axis, with dozens of emblematic buildings.

Many of them now stand as mere husks, after the deindustrialization of the area in the 1980s and despite the various plans for road renovation and revitalization that remained on paper. Among the few buildings that still retain their original use from the first decades of the 19th century is ELAIS and the Pavlidis chocolate factory, which for 135 years (since it relocated to Piraeus street), operates in the same buildings, which were modernized. and expanded.

In recent years, however, there has been a concentration of cultural uses in the area, which, however, is based on individual, mainly private initiatives, and not on organized planning. The facilities that have been restored and given new uses include that of Gazi, which now hosts the Technopolis of the Municipality of Athens, the textile factory “Sikiarideio” that houses the School of Fine Arts, the Poulopoulos hat factory where the Melina Merkouri Foundation is located, BIOSO where the “Greek World” of the Foundation of the Hellenic World is based, etc.

At the same time, the construction of a new shopping center (Piraeus Retail Park), at the height of Kifissos Avenue, is currently underway. Also the transformation o0f the IVI  complex in Neo Faliro into a pole for tourism, culture, leisure and trade, the transformation of the facilities of CHROPEI located in the Municipality of Piraeus into a center of research and innovation, are also maturing.