In Nicosia, the old municipal market building, located near the City Hall, has been opened after renovation.
The result of the restoration and expansion of the commercial facility is impressive.
It is now the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, a modern branch of CYENS, a research center specializing in interactive media, intelligent systems, and new technologies. The building is equipped with laboratories and exhibition halls, conference rooms, working areas, seminar rooms, a multimedia studio, and a production laboratory for testing innovative ideas.
It should be noted that the construction works lasted about three years. 6 million euros were spent on the renovation of the building.
In February 2021, the Innovation Center moved into the renovated former Stoa building in Municipal Square, next to Dimotiki Agora.
Together, the former Municipal Market and the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center building will serve as the nucleus of the Creative Industries Quarter project, which is already underway and is expected to kick-start the creation of a competitive and forward-looking knowledge economy and the promotion of capital in general, as a regional hub for creativity, growth and business innovation, benefiting the whole of Cyprus.
The joint venture is coordinated by the Municipality of Nicosia and brings together two renowned international partners, Germany's Max Planck Institute and the UK's University College London with three public universities in Cyprus - the University of Cyprus, Tepac (Cyprus University of Technology) and the Open University of Cyprus.