The latest bureaucratic obstacle placed before a massive land redevelopment project in coastal southeast Athens appeared this week when it emerged that the relevant culture minister has asked a ministry-affiliated council to re-assess whether three facilities at the disused Athens airport constitute "modern monuments".
Culture Minister Lydia Koniordou, a noted theatrical actress and one of the few unelected Cabinet members in the leftist-rightist Tsipras coalition government, called on the Central Council for Modern Monuments to re-assess whether the old west airport terminal, the former airport's control tower and a 1932-era two-storey building that currently houses certain Civil Aviation Authority offices are "modern architectural monuments".
Koniordou's letter to the council's members is dated April 13, 2017.
The facilities are located at the Helleniko site, which is slated for one of the biggest real estate development projects in the Mediterranean basin, a landmark privatization considered as a "barometer" for the current government's volition to implement memorandum-mandated targets.
Koniordou's decision comes after failed administrative and court challenges by opponents of the privatization, mostly anti-development and far-left community groupings active around the Helleniko district. A previous ministerial decision in January 2017 declined to characterize the control tower and concrete terminal, among others, as modern monuments.
The same council had been tasked, as far back as October 2016, with considering whether eight separate buildings at the disused airport retain elements for being possibly declared "modern monuments". After several hours of deliberations, only one site was bestowed an "architecturally unique" moniker, namely, a shed-like facility known as the "English Pagoda".
No date has been set to consider the minister's request, while another hearing by the Central Archaeological Council is pending on what, if any, archaeological sites and suspected sites are located on a tract of land that previously hosted runways, terminals, two military air bases and assorted other facilities.
A consortium declared the winner of the tender for the Helleniko site is led by Athens-based Lamda Development, but also includes China's Fosun and Eagle Hills, which is headquartered in Abu Dhabi.
In terms of the "forestland" issue, a relevant state-run forestry office with jurisdiction over the site, the Piraeus forestry office, has still not submitted a necessary report over land use for the development.
The Helleniko real estate project, along with Cosco's assumption of the majority of Piraeus Port Authority (OLP) shares and its management, the concession for 14 regional airports to a Fraport-led consortium and energy sector-related privatizations and liberalization, is among the biggest private sector initiatives in the bailout-dependent country at the moment.
