Lamda Blames Greek Government for Hellinikon Project Delays

Hellenikon Project, Photo Source: Lamda Development

Lamda Development, the consortium to take on the 8-billion-euro-plus urban development of Athens’ former airport in Hellinikon, said this week that it had proceeded with all the required actions for the project to move into implementation phase and that the delays were strictly a result of government stalling.

The Hellinikon venture, which involves converting Athens’ former airport complex into a multi-purpose hub complete with metropolitan park, shops, offices, sports and conference facilities, luxury hotels, theme parks, museums, malls, cultural venues, health centers, educational and research facilities and marina, now has one more reason to remain on the back burner: national elections on July 7.

“On February 15, we filed all the casino studies so that the competition would proceed. On February 5, we submitted the metropolitan park plan, and on February 18 we submitted the environmental impact studies for licensing,” said Odysseas Athanasiou, CEO Lamda Development SA, speaking at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting on Thursday.

Athanasiou went on to note, that through Lamda Development had completed its part of the deal some four months ago, the government has still not issued three joint ministerial decisions required to proceed with licensing in order to move ahead with the finalization of the contract between the state and Hellinkon SA, which will in turn together with the rights to the property be transferred to Lamda Development.

Last April, Lamda Development had expressed hopes that the project would finally begin in 2019.

In the meantime, the listed company said it expects to see profits for 2019-2020 increase by an additional 100 million euros driven by shopping center activity. It also announced a 25-million-euro investment by the end of the year in what is to become Greece’s largest family recreation center next to the Golden Hall mall.