After years of delay, Europe’s first ‘smart city’ prepares for its first residents

After a decade of delays, a vision of the Ellinikon is emerging.

The Marina Tower, soon to be Greece’s first skyscraper, is beginning to rise. Iron skeletons of apartment blocks are taking form. Standing on the marina, with a view of the Saronic Gulf on one side and the tower on the other, it’s possible to imagine the future city – which will feature the open spaces, sustainable energy sources and abundant green spaces that Athens currently lacks.

There was “justifiable disbelief” in the project’s early days, Odisseas Athanasiou said in an interview. Mr Athanasiou is the chief executive officer of Lamda, the developer behind the multiuse development.

Spread across 6,200 acres just a 20-minute drive outside of Athens, Ellinikon will transform both the coastline and the country. It’s the kind of project normally seen in China or the United Arab Emirates, and is a sign of Greece’s post-crisis revival and subsequent investment enthusiasm.

Developers project that it will add 2.5 percentage points to Greece’s GDP, create as many as 80,000 new jobs and generate tax revenue of more than €10bn following its completion in 2037.

It’s a sign of Greece’s post-crisis revival and of investor enthusiasm

They also claim it will draw an extra one million tourists a year, who will be able to choose between a Mandarin Oriental hotel and an integrated ­casino-resort for their lodgings.

Greece’s tourism sector has rebounded since the Covid-era, with 32 million visitors last year and 2024 on track to see a record number of arrivals.

For those who want to stay permanently, 243 units have already been put up for sale in the neighbourhood they are calling Little Athens, and 140 have been reserved.

The Marina Tower apartments and beachfront villas sold out first, and Lamda announced last month that proceeds from property sales have totalled €641m as of last March. The majority of buyers have been Greek nationals, and the city is expected to house as many as 20,000 people in about 10,000 homes within the next 13 years.

Working off the urban planning concept of “the 15-minute city”, Ellinikon residents will be able to access schools, parks, offices, stores and even the beach in less than a quarter of an hour. Software to oversee waste, water, and energy services will be laced throughout the complex.

“It’s a smart city,” Mr Athanasiou said. “We like to call it ‘Zip Code Paradise.’”

‘It’s a huge project even for European standards, let alone Greece’

The process of getting Ellinikon off the ground hasn’t been smooth. When Lamda purchased the plot of land in 2014, parts of it comprised the former airport buildings, including abandoned aircraft, while other parts housed refugees. The beachfront was scattered with nightlife set-ups and long-forgotten sports facilities.

Delays in the planning process dragged things out further, and the fact that Greece was effectively bankrupt when the project was proposed made it seem even more unlikely it would ever get off the ground.

“We had a construction sector in Greece which was at its lowest point in 10 years, due to the crisis,” Mr Athanasiou explained. “People had left the country, and construction companies weren’t as strong as they used to be. Increased construction costs added to this situation.”

While those challenges have subsided, Lamda was still dealing with a labour shortage. Around 7,000 workers will be needed when construction gets underway next year on building the Ellinikon mall. Lamda has about 2,000 workers at the moment, and is in advanced talks with contractors about importing construction workers from other countries.

Still, Mr Athanasiou described the company’s biggest challenge as its “lack of credibility”.

Before construction started, the CEO said, “you had a bankrupt country, a huge project even for European standards, let alone Greece, and a company that had never taken over a project like that before”.

These obstacles gradually faded as the new city has become a reality.

By the end of the summer, seven new buildings will be visible from the coast, alongside the skyscraper in progress. By the end of the year, that high-rise will have reached 100 meters and the number of seaside residential buildings in progress will have jumped to 15. By the close of 2025, a sports centre with football fields, tennis courts and swimming pools will open to the public.

‘There is enormous hidden value in company results’

“By Christmas of 2026,” Mr Athanasiou said, “we want residents to be living in their houses.”

As Greece’s economy recovers from its decade-long crisis, renewed interest is also coming from investors. The country has been granted investment grade-status from two of the three big rating companies in the last year, and investors flocked to the Athens stock exchange during a successful IPO from the Athens International Airport and stake sales in the country’s main banks.

Despite rising nearly 16pc in 2023, Lamda’s stock has been stuck around €7, which Mr Athanasiou attributes to broader pain in the real estate market.

“Our strategic goal is to diversify the investment assets, malls and marinas,” the CEO said. The company has been pitching potential investors in the UK and US on Ellinikon’s marinas, and is waiting for the right moment to launch an IPO for its malls.

There’s also reason to think that Ellinikon will be profitable from here on out. Bought from the Greek state for €915m in 2014, Lamda returned to the black in 2023 and beachfront residences now sell for as much as €15,000 per square metre.

“There is enormous hidden value in company results,” Mr Athanasiou maintains. Optimism is running high.

And as for concern that tourists flocking to Athens might be more interested in the ancient city’s historical offerings than its state-of-the-art amenities, the Lamda CEO isn’t worried.

“Is there any reason why someone visiting Ellinikon would decide not to go and see the Acropolis or Sounio as well?” Mr Athanasiou wondered.

“And is there any way that they’d hear about a place nearby with the tallest buildings, five high-rises, a casino resort, and choose to just stay at the Acropolis?”