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The
consortium of Mohegan and Greek construction group GEK Terna
last year won a Greek tender for the construction and 30-year
operation of the casino resort on the site of the former
Hellenikon airport on the Athens seafront.
The next steps in the process include signing the contract and
clearing it with Greek auditors and parliament.
"Right now, we anticipate that upon conclusion of the
contractual negotiation process, permitting and design will take
approximately 12 to 18 months", Ray Pineault, Mohegan's interim
CEO told the Delphi Economic Forum in Athens.
He said that the resort was expected to open in 2025 or 2026.
The resort is part of an 8 billion euro ($9.68
billion)redevelopment plan for the former airport site by Greek
developer Lamda that will eventually house shopping malls,
hotels and residences.
Lamda won a government tender for the redevelopment of the site
in 2014 but after years of delays due to red tape, political
resistance and local opposition, has yet to be handed control.
Greece's conservative government that took power in 2019 has
vowed to speed up the project.
The Greek economy relies heavily on tourism, which generates a
fifth of the country's economic output and employs one in five
workers.
The casino resort will include a hotel, entertainment venues,
convention centres and shopping and dining amenities.
"We anticipate the IRC (resort) will grow international tourism
in the Attica region by at least 10%," Pineault said. "It will
be a facility that's unforeseen anywhere else in all of Europe."
Lamda Development said this week it was hopeful that it can
start construction work in Hellenikon, Greece's biggest urban
redevelopment plan, in the autumn if it secures the property
from the state next month.
($1 = 0.8260 euros)
(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou. Editing by Jane Merriman)
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