The Ellinikon: Investor Spyros Latsis’ messages and apartments for lower incomes

On the day of the official inauguration ceremony of the reconstruction projects of the large area of ​​the Metropolitan Pole Ellinikon – Agios Kosmas and after the bulldozers and crews have got to work, investor Mr. Spiros Latsis chose to speak about the 8 billion euro project and the many problems it faced to reach this point.

During the glamorous event organized yesterday in Ellinikon, Mr. Latsis recounted how there there were times he hesitated, especially in the years of the memoranda, to continue the efforts to mature and start the investment .

However, the Greek investor and his Lamda Development group company believed in the project and continued despite adverse economic and political conditions (10-year economic crisis) and unforeseen events (coronavirus pandemic, energy crisis and war in Ukraine) to plan and implement ” the biggest urban planning intervention in Europe”, as Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said characteristically.

Latsis’ messages

Speaking online from Geneva (a mild illness prevented him from traveling to Greece), Spiros Latsis gave yesterday the answers that everyone has been asking for over many years. It has been 45 years since the first thoughts about transferring the airport to Spata and 25 years since the first legislative regulations of the Simitis government.

The first message that Mr. Latsis sent was how the specific reconstruction project succeeded in having continuity between different governments, seeking in this way to signal that the Ellinikon has been a national goal that can, despite differences, unite the Greeks. In fact, at the end of the public intervention, he thanked, among others, Prime Ministers Antonis Samaras, Alexis Tsipras and Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The first, according to Mr. Latsis, laid the legislative foundations and carried out the tender, the second negotiated the contract with an increase in green spaces and the third undertook the difficult task of demarcations and licensing.

The second message of Spyros Latsis addressed the critics of the project, and especially those who claimed that it would only affect a few and the high income class. As he pointed out, it concerns all Athenians and visitors. Ellinikon will be accessible to everyone from Vouliagmenis Avenue to the coastal front. He also announced the development and financing of housing for the “economically weaker” as well.

The third message had to do with the delays, the state’s hesitation for the implementation of the great urban regeneration but also the effects that existed on the national economy from the abandonment of the site and the maintenance of the regime of illegality on the beach.

Apartments for households

Mr. Latsis, as mentioned above, spoke about the development of housing that will be aimed at the financially weaker.

As he said, it will be apartment buildings, where with the premium of Lamda Development and the banking system, it will be possible to acquire apartments for families despite the high prices of real estate in the Southern Suburbs area.

The managing director of Lamda Development, Odysseas Athanasiou, announced a month ago that Lamda Development will develop 14-15 story towers with 1,000 apartments of an average size of 70 sq.m. which will be addressed to lower income groups of the population. These apartment buildings will be built in the neighborhoods of the former Olympic Airline Base and Trahoni.

The first projects

In a few months, the residents of Attica will be able to see from Poseidonos Avenue the first projects that are transforming the abandoned airport into a state-of-the-art and sustainable city.

During his speech, Mr. Athanasiou said that within 2023 the building to house the four associations for the disabled will be delivered, while the construction of the Riviera Tower will begin at Christmas. He estimated that next Christmas the first floors of the 200 meter high skyscraper will be visible to passers by.

Infrastructure and utility projects such as the undergrounding of Poseidon will gradually become more visible.