Ελληνικός τουρισμός, περιβάλλον & πολιτική

Mega project to be developed in one of last remaining unbuilt areas of the Athenian Riviera

The Interministerial Strategic Investments Commission approved the EUR 840m "Saronida Olympos Golf Project", as a 'strategic project' to be developed in a natural unbuilt coastal, hilly area of 650 hectares, one of few remaining in Attica, between Saronida and Lagonissi. It involves the construction of a hotel complex, an 18-hole golf course, a heliport, a tourist village, shopping mall and marina in two stages within the next 8 years. The developers, Beta Real Estate Development SA promise to achieve a near zero carbon footprint by reforesting 300 hectares and by installing renewable energy infrastructure. Before the final go ahead an environmental impact assessment must be approved, and a presidential decree and a special spatial development plan must be issued. The land belonged to a building cooperative of health professionals, that apparently had been unable to gain the necessary permissions from consecutive governments. Premium public land in many coastal regions in Attica and the rest of Greece was acquired using dubious methods to be developed by building cooperatives ("oikodomikoi synetairismoi") formed by judges, policemen, doctors, lawyers, public servants and other professionals, in the era following the end of the civil war and until the end of the military dictatorship (1950-1974).