Adelaide property developers Mr Theo Maras AM and Mr Gerry Karidis AM were honoured on Thursday in a new Property Council of Australia (SA) awards program honouring lifetime achievements.
The two eminent Greek Australians were recognised for their key roles in changing the face of South Australia, reinvigorating its capital, and for making an outstanding contribution to the property industry and local communities.
During the awards ceremony at a gala lunch in Adelaide’s CBD, Mr Karidis used his acceptance speech as a call to arms for reforms to enhance South Australia’s competitive edge.
Mr Karidis appealed for urgent action to prevent Adelaide becoming an economic backwater – and that greater immigration – particularly of skilled migrants – was needed to boost confidence and the city’s commercial prospects.
“I have been calling for change for many years but our decision makers do not appear to have been going in the right direction, and the confidence of our local building industry and the community has been affected as a result,” said Mr Karidis.
“While Perth and Melbourne have attracted skilled migrants and grown in population, Adelaide has not kept pace and now has an ageing population, with no wave of new workers on the horizon.”
Mr Karidis also called for the scrapping of Adelaide’s carpark tax and a review of the dedicated bus lane network to increase access to the city for visitors.
Gerry Karidis established his property development business in 1962 before forming the highly successful Karidis Corporation in 1975.
Theos Maras – founder and chairman of Maras Group – like his long-time friend Gerry Karidis, has been instrumental in helping shape development in South Australia since the early 1980s.
Mr Maras – whose parents came to Adelaide as subsistence farmers from Ikaria – told Neos Kosmos he was humbled by being inducted as a Property Icon.
“I never expected something like this. However it’s a great feeling being acknowledged by your industry in such a way,” he said.
“I’ve always felt very proud of the work that I have done as a developer. It disappoints me at times when people downgrade the risks and the pain that developers go through,” he said.
Mr Maras, like Mr Karidis, has been widely acknowledged for services to the community, and said that their measure of success was beyond personal commercial achievement.
“There’s a lesson here for the rest of Australia: two migrants came to Adelaide, worked very hard, and at the end of the day the journey has been a journey of winning – but also of giving along the way.”