An important step toward the implementation of the tourism project by “Stamania Enterprises Company LTD,” which is underway on Ios, was completed with the preliminary approval of the building permit for the construction of a 5-star hotel.
The Building Department of the Municipality of Thira has granted preliminary approval for the building permit for the project to be developed in Manganari by a company reportedly linked to the group of shipowner Nikos P. Tsakos (photo).
The plan calls for the construction of a 24-bed hotel with a basement, swimming pools, and a new underground water reservoir. The plot on which the hotel is to be built covers an area of 7 stremmata, with the building’s floor area set at 711 square meters and the footprint at 699 square meters.
The plan calls for a small-scale, high-end facility aimed at attracting high-spending guests and shifting the tourism product toward higher-quality forms of hospitality.
The asterisk
It should be noted, however, that in April, the Ministry of Culture—specifically the General Directorate of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage—had put put the “brakes” on the company’s plans, as the property where the hotel is to be built is located within a designated and demarcated archaeological site.
As stated in the relevant decision at the time, “this is a very large-scale project at the junction of the Halaros hill—where an important Early Cycladic settlement is located— with Manganario Beach and the Porion Cliffs, where the tombs of the equally significant cemetery of the aforementioned settlement are located.”
At that time, the competent Directorate determined that the implementation of the project would cause damage to the environment of the archaeological site and, at the same time, made a specific reference to the property’s buildability, “as the existence of legal access to a recognized public road network had not been proven.”
It should be noted that the Tsakos shipping family has taken on an active role in the tourism sector in recent years, with a focus on investments in the hospitality industry. The eponymous group, through the company “Atokos Limited Liability Company,” has launched an investment project with a budget of 85.4 million euros on Ithaca, which has been included in the Strategic Investments program.
In fact, the Tsakos family has two more… mainland investments. The first involves the renovation of the historic Xenia Hotel in Chios, the birthplace of the family patriarch, Panagiotis Tsakos. The second involves the development of the Chios marina, a project in which the family participated alongside other investors but from which it has since withdrawn.