Lamda to sign deal on former Athens airport project next week-source (updated)

Lamda Development SA

16/06/2021 16:39

(Updates with background)
    ATHENS, June 16 (Reuters) - Lamda Development  LMDr.AT  will
sign a long-awaited agreement with Greece's privatisation agency
next week to secure property rights over the site of the former
Athens airport, an official at the company said on Wednesday.
    The deal will pave the way for privately-owned Lamda to kick
off an 8 billion euro ($9.7 billion) investment in Greece's
biggest urban redevelopment plan after years of delays due to
bureaucratic hurdles and opposition to the project.
    The 1,500-acre Hellenikon airport site on the Athens coast,
where disused runways, terminals and former Olympic venues have
sat abandoned for almost two decades, will include shopping
malls, hotels and homes under a 99-year lease with the state.
    With the signing of the agreement next week, Lamda will pay
a first tranche of 300 million euros to Greece's privatisation
agency, the official, who declined to be named, told Reuters,   
  a third of the total amount agreed by the two sides for the
lease of the property.
    The conservative government that took power in 2019 has
vowed to speed up the project, hoping it will help its efforts
to pull the country out of a recession induced by the
coronavirus pandemic following a decade-long financial crisis.
    Last summer, demolition crews began tearing down the first
of hundreds of buildings that need to be removed from the site,
which is three times the size of Monaco.
    Lamda Development CEO Odisseas Athanasiou said last month
that if Lamda secured property rights in June, construction work
could start as early as in the summer.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2MZ5
    ($1 = 0.8253 euros)