Redeveloping old Athens airport a EUR 6 bn boost for Greece

(ATHENS) - A planned six-billion-euro ($8.3-billion) redevelopment of the former Athens airport will bring "huge" benefits to Greece's crisis-hit economy, officials said Thursday.

The state privatisation agency said the redevelopment of the Hellinikon site, south of Athens, would create a "new city" of 30,000 residents, an enormous park and leisure facilties and nearly 60,000 permanent jobs.

"The added value to the country is huge," Constantinos Maniatopoulos, chairman of the Hellenic asset development fund, told a news conference.

HRADF last month accepted a 915-million-euro offer for the site from a consortium led by Greek developers Lamda Development.

The consortium has undertaken to pour some 5.9 billion euros into the site over the next 15 years, in addition to the price to acquire the lease.

The money will be first spent on removing the former airport tarmac, cleaning the undersoil, creating park space and building a museum, an aquarium and leisure facilities.

Housing and hotel construction will follow.

The 99-year lease is subject to the approval of the Greece's top administrative court, the Council of State.

HRADF officials said they expect construction work at Hellinikon to begin in 2015 at the earliest.

The deal took 27 months to work out, but efforts to find a viable use for Hellinikon go back two decades.

Situated eight kilometres (five miles) south of Athens, Hellinikon and an adjoining 337-berth marina span nearly 620 hectares (1,530 acres) and include waterfront of about 3.5 kilometres.

The entire site is three times bigger than Monaco, and more than twice the size of Hyde Park in London.

It was turned into a sports complex for the 2004 Olympics, but most of the venues built for the Games have rarely been used since.

"Neighbouring municipalities can only benefit from the project," said HRAF executive director Andreas Taprantzis.

However, the leftist mayor of Hellinikon, Christos Kortzidis, has opposed past efforts to exploit the site, insisting that it remain in state hands and freely accessible to the public.

Lamda Development is backed by China's Fosun Group and Abu- Dhabi property firm Al Maabar.

It built a media village for the Athens Olympics and the Mall Athens, Greece's largest shopping centre. It also rebuilt and runs one of the capital's main marinas south of Athens.