A Greek development company to continue expansion plans if possible

The Greek companyLamda Development is hoping to proceed with the development of its projects on the Balkan peninsula(including Bulgaria) provided there are some signs of recovery or some decent occupancy levels and preliminary sales, Royters reported citing the CEO of the company. Lamda is developing and managing shopping centers, offices and residential complexes throughout Greece and Southeast Europe and has earlier frozen 408 million euro-worth projects owing to the global economic decline. "We will probably continue the development of one of these schemes in 2010 or we might make new investments depending on the global conditions", Odisseas Atanasiu said. Lamda requires 30-40% preliminary occupancy level (in lease and sale contracts) before it restarts its office and residential projects in Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, he added. The company, which is part of the empire of the Lacis family, has initiated three projects in Bulgaria. The largest one is said to provide 30,000 sq m of office space at the former market of Stochna gara in the capital of Sofia. The investment is estimated to 47 million euro. The Greek assets of the company make up 86% of the entire real estate portfolio of Lamda - 869 million euro.