Andreas Apostolopoulos (1952 – 15 February 2021) was a Greek-Canadian billionaire businessman, primarily concentrated on real estate investment and redevelopment. He is best known for his ownership of the

Silverdome The Pontiac Silverdome (also known as the Silverdome) was a stadium in Pontiac, Michigan. It opened in 1975 and sat on 199 acres (51 ha) of land. When the stadium opened, it featured a fiberglass fabric roof held up by air pressure, the fi ...

Pontiac, Michigan Pontiac ( ') is a city in and the county seat of Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. Located roughly northwest of downtown Detroit, Pontiac is part of the Metro Detroit, Detroit metropolitan area, and is vari ...

. The Apostolopoulos family is one of the richest Greek families in the United States and the richest Greek family in Canada. He died on 15 February 2021.

Biography

Born in the port city of

Kalamata Kalamata ( ) is the second most populous city of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece after Patras, and the largest city of the Peloponnese (region), homonymous administrative region. As the capital and chief port of the Messenia regiona ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, Apostolopoulos emigrated to Canada in 1969. Starting as a labourer and janitor, he progressed to owning small service and manufacturing companies, paving the way to commercial real estate investment and redevelopment. He was the chairman of Triple Group of Companies, based in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Silverdome purchase

Apostolopoulos made international news in 2009 when his investment company purchased the Pontiac Silverdome at auction for $583,000. A low purchase price for an 82,000-seat stadium that had been constructed in 1975 for $55.7 million ($220 million in 2009). Apostolopoulos's company Triple Sports and Entertainment managed and operated the Silverdome as a sports and entertainment venue, investing millions of dollars to bring back the stadium to its original condition hosting many events, the first event at the Silverdome under his ownership was a

monster truck A monster truck is a specialized off-road vehicle with a heavy duty suspension, four-wheel steering, large-displacement V8 engines and oversized tires constructed for competition and entertainment uses. Originally created by modifying stock p ...

and motorsports show on 17 April 2010. The stadium has since been imploded and will be completely demolished and prepared for future development.

Durham Live casino

Durham Live The Pickering Casino Resort is a casino, resort, and entertainment venue that is currently under development in the Canadian city of Pickering, Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Loc ...

is a $1.3 billion entertainment district that is in the process of being developed in south Pickering in the Canadian city of

Pickering, Ontario Pickering (2021 Canadian census, 2021 population 99,186) is a city located in Southern Ontario, Canada, immediately east of Toronto in Durham Region, Ontario, Durham Region. Beginning in the 1770s, the area was settled by primarily British colon ...

. The plan received approval for development in 2017. It will contribute $600 million in tax revenue and $1 billion towards Pickering's GDP and represents the largest private investment in Pickering's history. 61% of Pickering residents voted in favor of the development. According to Universal City Condominiums, a condo developer near the Durham Live development site, "Durham Live" will include "a massive casino, hotel, film studio, theatre, waterpark, big box retail, luxury stores, golf course, performance hall, and gourmet dining".

Duffins Creek wetland controversy

In early March 2021, Triple Group received significant negative press for plans to rezone a protected wetland for development into an Amazon warehouse. Environmental groups filed a court injunction to prevent the project from going forward. On March 12, Amazon announced that they were no longer considering the site for their warehouse. In November 2022, news came out that 90% of the wetland had been cleared and tilled.

Detroit Penobscot building

The Penobscot building, is a class-A office tower complex consisting of three office towers in

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. The 1928

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

building is located in the heart of the Detroit Financial District. The Penobscot is a hub for the city's

wireless Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information (''telecommunication'') between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided transm ...

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

zone and

fiber-optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...

network. The Penobscot building is on the National Register of Historical Properties and was purchased in 2012 by Triple Properties Inc. The firm purchased the building when the property was in foreclosure during Detroit's worst economic recession in history. The Penobscot building, once considered a crown jewel of downtown Detroit's real estate domain, has suffered from extensive neglect by Apostolopoulos' property management company in recent years. In early 2020, Triple Group received hundreds of fines and violations with penalties, totalling tens of thousands of dollars, for conditions including rodent infestation and solid waste buildup.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Apostolopoulos, Andreas 1952 births 2021 deaths Businesspeople from Toronto People from Kalamata Greek emigrants to Canada Date of birth missing Place of death missing