Athens Council Approves 22-Storey Mixed-Use Tower on Pireos Street, Reshaping the Capital's Western Edge

Athens Central Development Council gave the green light Thursday to a 22-storey mixed-use tower on Pireos Street near Metaxourgeio, the tallest privately financed residential project approved in the Greek capital since 2016. The €185 million scheme, submitted by Attica-based developer Hellenic Urban Projects SA, will rise on a 4,200 square-metre plot that has sat derelict since a 2009 fire gutted the former Thermoplastiki industrial complex.

The timing matters. Athens has spent the past three years absorbing record foreign investment in its central neighbourhoods, driven partly by the Golden Visa programme's ongoing — if restructured — pull on non-EU buyers, and partly by a domestic market where asking prices in the historic centre topped €3,100 per square metre in the first quarter of 2026 according to property portal Spitogato. Demand for new-build stock near the CBD has consistently outstripped supply. This approval is the first large-scale mixed-use consent granted under the revised Attica Regional Spatial Plan that came into force in January 2026, making it a test case for how the new rules will reshape the city's skyline.

What Gets Built and Where

The Pireos Street scheme spans floors one through five with commercial and co-working space managed under a partnership with WeWork's European affiliate. Floors six through 22 deliver 198 residential units ranging from 48 sq m studios priced from €320,000 to four-bedroom penthouses listed at €1.4 million. A publicly accessible ground-floor arcade connecting Pireos to Konstantinoupoleos Street is a condition of the consent, designed to stitch the development into the pedestrian fabric of Metaxourgeio rather than seal it off behind a lobby.

The Metaxourgeio neighbourhood is relevant here. Once synonymous with neglect and high vacancy, the district around Iera Odos and Keramikos metro station has drawn a run of boutique hotels, galleries and refurbished apartment blocks since roughly 2021. The Onassis Cultural Centre's Stegi venue nearby accelerated that shift. Hellenic Urban Projects identified the Thermoplastiki site three years ago and spent 18 months navigating the Archaeological Council's requirements, given that excavations during foundation surveys uncovered late Roman-period walls at a depth of four metres — those findings are now being coordinated with the Central Archaeological Council and will be incorporated into a ground-floor display within the arcade.

Numbers Behind the Decision

Planning documents lodged with the Ministry of Environment and Energy show the project will create an estimated 340 construction jobs over a 38-month build period, with completion targeted for September 2029. The developer has committed €2.3 million to a public realm fund administered by the Municipality of Athens, earmarked specifically for streetscape upgrades along Pireos between Omonia and Kerameikos. That contribution is the largest single private infrastructure payment made under the municipality's 2024 Urban Regeneration Compact.

Greece's broader construction sector recorded a 14.7 percent rise in building permits issued during the first five months of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier, according to ELSTAT data published last month. Central Athens and Piraeus accounted for nearly a third of those permits by value. The Pireos Street tower will, on its own, represent roughly 6 percent of the total private residential floor area approved across the Attica region so far this year.

Residents and buyers watching the project should note that the public arcade must open before any residential units are occupied — a sequencing clause inserted by the council. Prospective purchasers can register interest through Hellenic Urban Projects' sales office on Stadiou Street from 14 July, when the formal pre-sales process launches. The company says roughly 40 percent of units have already been reserved under preliminary agreements signed during the planning phase. For those tracking the neighbourhood's trajectory, the planning documents are now publicly available on the Ministry of Environment's e-permits portal, reference file ATT-2026-04417.