Hellinikon was Greece’s major airport from 1938 to 2001
It’s been nearly a decade since crowds swarmed across the site of Athens’s old Hellinikon airport, which was transformed into a venue for the 2004 Olympics. Today stray dogs wander among the decaying stadiums and buildings as a skeleton crew of security guards keeps watch. At 6.2 million square meters (1,532 acres), about three times the size of Monaco, the property is one of the largest unused tracts of urban real estate in Europe. Next to the Olympic facilities—among them baseball and softball fields and a canoeing center—sit several old aircraft hangars and terminals and a functioning marina. There are even some actual ancient ruins.
As Greece seeks more debt relief from its European Union partners, the government plans next month to select a developer to rebuild Hellinikon. But the property’s decade of decay says a lot about the country’s problematic asset sales program. Under the terms of Greece’s bailout agreement with the EU, proceeds will go to pay down the debt. A recession has wiped out a fifth of Greece’s economy, and left one in four adults jobless.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has committed to raising €11 billion ($15 billion) before 2016 by offloading everything from ports to highways. (The figure has been revised down from €50 billion by 2015—the amount agreed to under the country’s first bailout four years ago.) Since 2010, deals worth €4 billion have closed, and the government has collected €2.6 billion, says Andreas Taprantzis, executive director of the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund, an independent agency overseeing Greece’s privatization efforts. The biggest sale to date was a stake in the lottery company Opap for €712 million last August.
The sales, including attempts to privatize Hellinikon, have been delayed by political opposition, legal challenges, and investor doubts over Greece’s euro zone status. “We are not very friendly to investors,” says Spyros Capralos, the chief executive officer of Star Bulk Carriers (SBLK) shipping and a former head of the Athens Stock Exchange.
Photograph by Thanassis Stavrakis/AP PhotoThe abandoned Olympic softball venue within the Hellinikon complex
The government hopes the sale of Hellinikon is likelier now that Greece’s economy is more stable—it’s expected to grow 0.6 percent this year, piquing the interest of investors. “Getting Hellinikon off the ground would boost investor confidence by creating jobs and signaling the government’s resolve to move ahead with big-ticket privatizations,” says Miranda Xafa, a former board member for Greece at the International Monetary Fund.
Samaras hopes to sell a majority stake in Hellinikon SA, the operating company established in 2011 to privatize and then develop the property into a mix of retail, entertainment, and residential projects. The contract is expected to go to one of three bidders: Elbit Cochin Island, an Israeli investor and developer; Athens-based Lamda Development; and London developer London & Regional Properties.
The transaction is likely to be one of Greece’s biggest asset sales this year, though the privatization agency hasn’t said how much the property might go for. The development, the fund estimates, will create more than 40,000 permanent jobs once completed. It could also bring in more than €5 billion in investments over the next decade, Taprantzis says, and add 0.3 percent annually to the country’s gross domestic product. “Even if the state has to sell at a lower price than what they had in mind,” Capralos says, “at least you get the economic stimulus from an investment.”
“Hellinikon could be the project that shows that Greece is open again for business,”
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