Greece to Create Massive ”Ministry Park” in Athens

Greece will create a massive new administrative park near Mount Hymettus, it was made public on Saturday.

In an event held in the abandoned industrial complex of PYRKAL, Greek Premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis unveiled the plans that will create a new urban park for Athens, which will also accommodate the administrative services of a total of nine government Ministries.

Greece’s New Administrative Park as presented by PM Mitsotakis

”It is a great day for the municipality of Ymittos – Dafni as we are announcing the launch of an extremely ambitious urban regeneration project,” Prime Minister Mitsotakis said.

“It is an area in the center of the municipality, which employs a little more than 300 people. An industrial production that has no reason to be within the urban fabric. At the same time, Greece’s public administration still occupies dozens of rented buildings to serve its needs in the center of Athens,” the Premier noted.

This costs tens of millions of euros to the Greek taxpayer, so Greek authorities have decided to go ahead and develop the PYRKAL industrial area to upgrade the area and also save money by moving many of the Greek government’s administrative offices there.

“So the logic of creating this new government park offers a unique opportunity, a significant urban regeneration which, on the one hand, will substantially change the face of the city and on the other hand, will offer important opportunities for the public administration to function better, in new buildings that are environmentally friendly and of course much more friendly to the employees,” Mitsotakis said.

The Prime Minister stressed that the plan prepared by the government envisages the creation of a new green ”lung” for Athens, a city that desperately needs more public areas with green space.

The intervention, according to the government’s plan, will free public areas for use by citizens, creating a park, something that has been a request of the residents for decades. At the same time, more than 1 billion euros will be saved in the long term, based on the rents currently paid by the state.

The PYRKAL facilities now belong to Hellenic Defense Systems, a publicly-owned company.

The project is expected to be delivered in about five years and the relocation of public services is expected to take place during the period 2025 — 2026.

The total investment is estimated to amount to 250 million euros.

Η αναμόρφωση του παλιού εργοστασίου της ΠΥΡΚΑΛ και η μετατροπή του σε πάρκο θα αποτελέσει «πνεύμονα» πρασίνου, αποδίδοντας 80 στρέμματα πάρκου & 40 στρέμματα σε κοινόχρηστους χώρους στους πολίτες, ενώ θα φιλοξενήσει τις συγκεντρωμένες υπηρεσίες 9 Υπουργείων και άλλων οργανισμών. pic.twitter.com/GMsuScGkeR

— Prime Minister GR (@PrimeministerGR) April 3, 2021

With information from AMNA