Athens' Airport Redevelopment Plan Suddenly Looks a Lot Better

A few years back, the redevelopment of Athens’ old airport looked set to be a major, singularly depressing scandal. A vast site of over 1,500 acres hugging the Greek capital’s coastline, Ellinikon Airport was due to be sold off to private developers for what critics said was far too little after its last plane took off in 2001. This huge development project, made by a crisis-hit government desperate for funds by any means necessary, replaced long-standing plans to create a much-needed city park. Giving up a major chunk of fairly central land that included a beachfront, the plan arguably squandered a development opportunity the likes of which Athens might never have seen again.

Now, however, Ellinikon’s future is looking a lot brighter than it has for years. Greece’s new government has renegotiated with the developers, gaining a better deal that will see more green, less concrete, better infrastructure, faster investment and a larger set of social responsibilities set for the developer. In an unusual turn of events, the Ellinikon affair is a case of a plan that went from good to bad—and then (if things go according to plan) recovered to deliver a much better deal for its host city.