A looming date, Oct. 10, is the deadline for submitting binding offers for a 43.63-percent stake of the historic Modiano arcade / market in the heart of Thessaloniki’s commercial district.
The 2,510-square-meter retail space is the center-piece of a relevant tender for the Modiano property by Greece’s privatization fund, TAIPED or HRADF, and comes in the face of a complex ownership scheme for the site.
The rest of the property, 56.37 percent, belongs to 61 individuals, of varying shares, the result of Greece’s outdated ab indiviso legal framework for property inheritance, whereby inheritors and their inheritors become co-owners over several generations.
Often times this type of ownership arrangement leads to a property’s abandonment and depreciation, as co-owners struggle to agree on a common course for exploitation, sale to a third party or a buyout amongst themselves.
Nevertheless, the privatization fund’s management believes there will be investor interest in the stake, from interests in both Greece and abroad.
One possible suitor is the Thessaloniki Professional Chamber of Commerce, whose president, Mihalis Zorpidis, on Thursday expressed his chamber’s interest in the property. He nevertheless hinted that the chamber would like the municipality’s partnership in such a move.
On his part, Thessaloniki Mayor Yannis Boutaris referred recently to interest by a French fund for the stake in the Modiano market, without going into details.
Construction of the closed market was begun in 1922 and finished in 1930, under the supervision of architect Eli Modiano. It was based on the Parisian style of closed markets during that era.
