Sophia Alonistioti

Sophia is a leading expert in the real estate sector. She has led the Lambadarios team in detailed due diligence on a wide range of assets including malls, supermarkets and retail and office spaces, State-owned buildings, hotels, greenfield projects, transport and logistics sites and warehousing, and mining assets. She has also led due diligences on the real estate collaterals in NPL portfolios for buy and sell-side transactions and in a variety of banking and finance arrangements.

Sophia advises companies on the formation of property holding companies and joint ventures, and on the most appropriate transaction structures, including share and sale-and-purchase arrangements.

She advises clients, including many leading global corporations, on their head office leasing arrangements, sale and leaseback transactions, relocations and refurbishing. Sophia has also worked with the leading REICs in negotiating and executing complex triple-net leases on properties for lease to key clients, and has supported clients in the hospitality and tourism sector advising on operation agreements and leasing of properties to major hotel operators.

She works closely with our notary team for acquisitions and due diligence on real estate assets, including environmental (forestry, land-use rights), and urban-planning legislation issues such as normalizing assets prior to sale.

Notable Real Estate cases

Real Estate Investment Companies (REICs) – Recent Projects

• Advised BriQ Properties REIC on the acquisition of 80% of the share capital of Sarmed Warehouses, a market leader in logistics for €23.6m.
• Advised Briq REIC on the acquisition of properties in Kallithea and Marousi, with total value of €1.8m.
• Advised Briq Properties REIC a listed real estate investment company, οn the acquisition of Μ and Mrs. White hotels in Paros, Tinos and Corfu, Greece.
• Advising Briq Properties REIC on the acquisition of a hotel in Skiathos against the purchase price of €3.5m through a share sale-and-purchase transaction.
• Advised BriQ Properties REIC, οn the acquisition of an office building in the center of Athens with total value of €6.5m.
• Advised BriQ Properties REIC on the acquisition of properties in Athens, Rhodes, and Kallithea, with total value of €6.8m.
• Advised BriQ REIC a Greek registered reic, on corporate – tax law compliance issues regarding the distribution of advance dividends by related parties, and the tax treatment of lease payments deriving from covid-19 subsidies and tax relief measures in place for the amount of €1,5m.
• Completed a detailed legal due diligence for Grivalia Properties REIC for the €27m acquisition of a commercial building.
• Completed a detailed legal due diligence for Grivalia Properties REIC for the €4m acquisition of a listed building in Piraeus.
• Completed a detailed legal due diligence for Grivalia Properties REIC for the acquisition of horizontal properties in two commercial buildings in Maroussi, with total value of €12m.
• Advising Grivalia PropertiesREIC on a potential acquisition of a major real estate asset in Thessaloniki against the purchase price of approximately €50m through a share sale-and-purchase transaction.
• Advised Grivalia Properties REIC on the acquisition of a company and the formation of a joint venture with a real estate developer for a complex multi-use development of the Papastratos historical buildings in the part of Piraeus. The total project value is over €60m.

Real Estate Funds

• Advised Texas-based Hines, the second-largest real estate developer in the world, on its acquisition of five hotels in Crete for €100m.
• Advised Hines and Henderson Park on the bank financing for the €171m acquisition of the former Capsis property in Crete.
• Advised Hines on the bank financing of €21.7m for refinancing purposes for the operation, management and exploitation of a retail center located in the center of Athens.
• Advised Hines on a €130m investment in developing a large real estate greenfield asset in the Athens Riviera.
• Advised Hines and Henderson Park on the financing for the €65m acquisition of land and the construction of an apartment complex in Voula, Attiki.
• Advised Hines, one of the largest privately held real estate-investing companies in the world, on the restructuring of its Greek subsidiaries by way of subsequent mergers between them.
• Advised an investment management company, on the tax issues related to the structuring of the acquisition and immediate resale of a Greek bank’s portfolio of real estate assets, to non-identified end buyers, via the assignment of pre-contract rights for the amount of €7,5m.

Leasing & Rentals

• Advising Briq Properties REIC leasing office spaces, commercial properties and several hotels in its portfolio.
• Advised Google in the leasing and refurbishment of its head office in Athens.
• Advising Procter and Gamble in all is real estate matters in Greece including the sale of its distribution center in the outskirts of Athens, the relocation of its new head office and leasing new office space around.
• Advised Goodyear Tires on the leasing of new office space and the refurbishment of its offices in Athens.
• Advised Dow Chemical on the transfer of its manufacturing facility in Lavrion to Ravago including a number of industrial sites formerly owned by Dow for the production of Styrofoam and the leasing of new office space.