Russian cash in €800 million theme park plan
PICTURE a colossal theme park covering a million cubic metres of land, replete with waterfalls, swanky hotels, a museum and re-enactments of the ancient naval battle of Salamis. A staggering tourist attraction for Greece, no doubt. Except it wouldn’t be in Greece, but much closer to home. In the heart of Cyprus, to be precise.
According to Politis, which broke the story, the project, costing a whopping €800 million, is the brainchild of a team of Russian financiers keen to pour their money into the island – and they’re convinced they can pull it off.
It’s hoped the project will act as a powerful tourist magnet, drawing in half a million visitors, bringing much-needed cash to the flagging sector, and creating thousands, of new jobs.
To say the project is ambitious would be an understatement. On the designs, the centerpiece is a zigzag-shaped five-star hotel with at least 1,000 suites, spas, the works. Then you have theatres, a water park, Olympic-standard sports grounds, restaurants and the obligatory mall.
Called ‘Pygmalion and Galateia’ after the Cypriot sculptor who carved a woman out of ivory, the overall theme will be inspired by the history of the island. Expect Doric-style columns everywhere and architecture harking back to classical Greece.
Visitors to the sprawling complex can shop, go to the theatre or watch re-enactments of the battle of Salamis, and even take part in mock sword-fights.
The whole complex would be powered by renewable sources of energy.
The Russian investors have partnered up with Cypriot businessmen to form a local consortium called Boema.
“They are highly respected investors, with interests across Europe, and have only recently finished building a huge shopping mall in Moscow,” said Christodoulos Papadopoulos, executive consultant for Boema.
He declined to name the financiers, except to say that one of them was Cyprus-based.
Papadopoulos said the complex could accommodate a maximum of 8,000 visitors a day, “although 6,000 would be a more realistic number.”
He said they have been in contact with a major Russian travel organisation, which has promised it can deliver as many as half a million tourists to the island a year.
Early number-crunching has shown the project could generate a gross profit of €80 million a year. The land, belonging to the state, would be leased for a period of 33 years. The lease price would be no more than six per cent of the value of the land.
Papadopoulos said the investors have already presented their proposal to the relevant ministers of Commerce, the Interior and Finance. A ministerial committee next week is to decide whether to give the thumbs-up and recommend the project to the Cabinet.
Assuming the government says yes, and all paperwork is submitted (such as town planning permits), it would take three years for the project to be completed.
“Hopefully it would be ready by 2012, when Cyprus will hold the EU Presidency,” asserted Papadopoulos.
There is one major problem, though. The proposed location is on state land, but in the buffer zone near the mixed village of Pyla. And the idea would be for the project to be a bicommunal one, allowing access to it from both sides of the island. Needless to say, it would mean building a road linking the north to the site, posing all sorts of political issues.
But Papadopoulos likes to see this more as an opportunity, rather than a challenge.
“Can you imagine the revenues for the municipality of Pyla from the sale of theatre tickets alone? By law, there is a 25 per cent viewing tax, which goes to the municipality.
And if the Pyla location is problematic, then the investors have “a Plan B and a Plan C,” Papadopoulos told the Mail.
Papadopoulos sees business as a catalyst for bringing the two communities together. Under the plan, a significant percentage of employees (be it in the hotels, the water parks, security companies) would be Turkish Cypriots.
“We expect 3,000 jobs to be created in total,” he adds.
The island has had its fair share of grand ideas, from a Formula 1 racetrack to the construction of a giant Aphrodite theme park off the coast of Paphos. All came to nothing. Is it the real thing this time?
15.01.2009
