Noor-e Tehran Mall Units for Plasco Retailers

An agreement has been reached with the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture by which 600 commercial units at the Noor-e Tehran Shopping Center will be relinquished to former business owners of the collapsed Plasco Building, on a two-year lease. 

The agreement effective from February 7 was reached with the chamber by the Office of the Vice President for Executive Affairs, headed by Mohammad Shariatmadari.

The seven-storey Noor-e Tehran Shopping Center with 1,037 commercial units is located in the vicinity of Vali-E Asr Square in District 6. The owner of the shopping mall is the private sector Parsian Bank, a major Iranian bank located in Tehran, Khabaronline reported. 

According to Eqtesad Online, the rental costs will be paid by Mostazafan Foundation (the owner of Plasco) for the first four months to support the business owners, after which the onus would be on them to pay the rent. 

The shopping center, it is said, has enough units to house former Plasco businesses; however some retailers believe that they may not be able to make good sales in the newly allocated shops as the number of people visiting the mall is far less when compared to Plasco. 

“Moreover, each commercial unit has an area of 13 sq meters while our units in Plasco were bigger than 30 sq meters,” said another retailer. The shopping center is also not so well-known, he maintained.

  Production Units Outside 

Mojtaba Doroudian, head of the Men’s Apparel Union said, “From among 600 units at Plasco, mostly wholesalers and retailers dealing in textile and garments, 402 had their production units at other places, outside the premises while some sellers didn’t have production units from the start. Therefore most of them need only a place to sell their apparel. 

The Plasco 17-story shopping center was built in the early 1960s in Jomhuri Street in downtown Tehran. It was the first high-rise in the capital. 

On January 19, the Plasco tower with several clothing workshops caught fire and collapsed. Most of the business units and shops in the building were not insured and lacked basic safety standards.

After the accident, a special committee was established to assist the former Plasco production units to get back on their feet by resolving their insurance, banking and tax problems.

On January 23, Economy Minister Ali Tayyebnia ordered Iranian National Tax Administration (INTA) to waive all tax debts pertaining to the production units and sales outlets.

He also asked banks to cooperate completely and provide the working capital required to restart their activities. Central Bank of Iran Governor Valiollah Seif has said loans up to $78,000 (3 billion rials) will be allocated to each business with a one year grace period.