Old Athens airport to turn into luxury resort

• Category: News
A Greek development fund announced yesterday plans for the transformation of the former Athens airport of Hellinikon into a world class tourist resort. This investment of Lamda Group Development, China's Fosun Group and Abu-Dhabi property firm Al Maaber is estimated to bring 5.4 billion USD to the Greek economy.

As announced at the news conference, the aim is the make Athens the first European capital with its own resort, including one of the largest parks in the world with expanse of more than 2 million sq.m., leisure, exhibition and concert facilities, hotels of 2,500 beds and luxury residences. All these will be constructed at the 620 hectares (1,530 acres) of the Hellinikon old Athens airport plus the waterfront of 3.5 km with a 337-berth yacht marina.

The investment is estimated to start in 2016, after the Greek state completes the land permit procedure and releases all urban building licenses needed. Otherwise, the investors are free to walk away from the project.

The consortium will invest 5.9 billion euros on this project that will bring thousands of new job positions and is believed to attract one more million tourists per year in the Greek capital. The investors signed a 99-year lease for Hellinikon at a price of 915 million euros.