IMC to house government offices?

By Martin Hellicar

NICOSIA’S International Merchandising Centre (IMC) building may be bought up by the state to house the Lands & Survey Department, IMC manager Andreas Kaisis confirmed yesterday.

Commenting on reports in the local press yesterday, Kaisis told the Cyprus Mail that, while no deal had been struck, the possibility was being “investigated”.

He said the IMC no longer needed a building the size of it’s current home, while the department needed to be housed under a single roof.

“The government is in the process of computerising the Lands & Survey department, and as it is currently housed in seven or eight separate buildings, some of them old, this is not efficient,” Kaisis said. “The government has spent millions on computerisation and needs a single home (for the department).”

“Experts have looked over the IMC building and have declared it perfect for the department’s computerisation needs,” Kaisis said.

“Due to circumstances beyond our control, we no longer need as much space,” Kaisis said. He said government moves to restrict offshore activity in view of EU accession meant the centre’s business was suffering.

The IMC specialises in duty-free shopping and regional wholesale trade. The multi-storey building has a total floor space of 21,000 square metres, and the centre, in Kaisis’s estimation, only requires about 8,000 square metres for it’s future operations.

Reports suggested the price on the building’s head was £8.5 million, but Kaisis shied away from commenting on the matter yesterday.

He said only that the development had cost his company about £12 million, “which the government is well aware of, having supported the project all along.”

The company manager said there was no possibility of a “friendly” deal with the government.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.