The Hellinikon Project has been a long time coming.

The prime real estate where the old Greek airport used to be has for years sat empty, but on Friday, Lamda Development CEO Odysseas Athanasiou said it would soon “make all Greeks proud”.

Outlining the vision for the project, he said that the project would become a “take-off symbol in the new era” for Greece.

A few months ago, Lamda Development’s basic shareholder invested more than 350 million euros in the project and infrastructure works are set to begin in the first half of 2021.

The old airport, set to become a coastal front park, one of the biggest in the world, will leave behind its grey industrial landscape and become a jewel of the coastal strip along what is known as the Athens Riviera.

The vision of Lamda Development for the development of the former Hellinikon airport is the design of a pioneering development for Athens, with emphasis on the creation of a world class Metropolitan Park covering an area of 2,000,000 sq.m., as well as the enhancement of the Coastal Front, both fully accessible to the public.

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The project consists of an integrated urban development model that will combine the area’s natural beauty and unique inherent characteristics with landmark buildings and state-of-the-art infrastructure. The ‘green’ and ‘smart’ design approach of the project will offer world-class services and amenities while improve the standard of living of the entire Attica area’s inhabitants.

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Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said, “It is the largest coastal park in the Mediterranean, but at the same time it will become a growth lever. In its full operation, Helliniko will create more than 80,000 jobs, 10,000 jobs will be created only during the construction phase. It will be a modern, ecological, environmentally friendly project, a project that will mark the beginning of a new era for Greece as we all envision it.”