The department store was designed by the renowned Cypriot architect Giorgos Mavrommatis, commissioned by the ESEL — cooperative organization of Cyprus.In the early 1970s, shopping centers were considered a progressive phenomenon of urban life, their construction was promoted by government laws: the public had yet to see them as detrimental to the commercial fabric of the city, one such center may kill an entire shopping street.

Incidentally, the ESEL was also the first building with escalators in the city. The facade of the shop was a huge screen made of prefabricated reinforced concrete elements, which protected from excessive sunlight and at the same time decorated the street with intricate oriental ornaments. Alas, over time, the elements got dusty and ceased to be seen as a stylish feature, as is often the case with fanciful things.

The rapid success of the building was followed by neglect: much larger department stores and shopping centers appeared, and the ESEL turned out in the cold. Inside, the layout has been changed for commercial purposes: in the 2010s, it briefly housed a bank and then an H&M shop, and the facade renovation is still underway (November 2023). Notwithstanding the foregoing, the ESEL is a recognized architectural monument and has been included in the DOCOMOMO list of 100 important modern architecture sites.