On 3 November 2015, members of ULI Greece attended a presentation and a site tour of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC), the largest urban regeneration project currently undertaken in Greece. ULI Greece Chair George Kaburopulos of CEO Dorian Strategic Partners organised the visit.

The project with total budget of $831mil (€596mil) includes the construction and complete outfitting of new facilities for the National Library of Greece (NLG) and the Greek National Opera (GNO), as well as the creation of the 170,000 m² Stavros Niarchos Park. The project site is located 4.5 km south of the centre of Athens, on the edge of Faliro Bay, and the SNFCC is designed as a multifunctional arts, education and recreation complex.

The SNFCC is exclusively funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) and upon its completion will be delivered as a gift to the Greek State, which will assume its full operation and management. The SNFCC is the first private-public partnership of its type in Greece, and one of the most important civic (cultural/educational) projects ever undertaken in the country.  As one of the largest construction projects in recent Greek history, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center will have an immediate impact on the local economy, providing jobs and infusing capital into a challenging economic landscape.

While waiting for the arrival of all participants, the ULI Greece Advisory Board was given a tour of the premises currently under construction and partially completed. Afterwards, Elpidoforos Papas, Deputy Project Director at Faithful+ Gould gave a presentation about the visualisation, concept and planning of the project by as well as a technical presentation of the construction process, materials and the building standards needed to claim the Platinum LEED for such a complicated project.

Participants also had the opportunity to visit the special photography exhibition “Weaving Light”, currently hosted at the Visitors Center, focusing on the construction elements of the 10,000 sqm energy canopy of the SNFCC.