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GreekReporter.comBusinessQatar Eyes Purchase of Astir Palace

Qatar Eyes Purchase of Astir Palace

Astir palacePrime Minister Antonis Samaras’ trip to Qatar to persuade officials that Greece needs its investments is paying more dividends after a report that the wealthy Gulf State is in talks to the Astir Palace, a beachfront resort in Athens that twice hosted the Bilderberg conferences of political and business leaders.
The news agency Bloomberg, citing three people with knowledge of the matter, said that representatives of Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment, part of country’s sovereign-wealth fund, discussed the sale with Greek officials and the resort’s owners when Samaras visited Doha last month.
Qatar, unhappy with the way Greece does business, had pulled out of three projects but is said to be interested now in bidding again to turn the former airport site, which was supposed to become Europe’s biggest park, into a concrete commercial center.
Greece is trying to attract foreign investment as the economy faces its sixth straight year of recession and a record 27 percent unemployment rate.
An Astir Palace deal would mark the first sale of a property freehold in the country since the government announced a 50 billion euros ($67 billion) privatization plan in 2011. Greece is trying to raise 2.6 billion euros ($3.42 billion) this year. Qatar has said it doesn’t want competitors and doesn’t want to bid on projects, only negotiate directly with the government.
The National Bank of Greece and the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund, which own the property, put out an international public tender on Jan. 16. The 120,000 square-meter (1.3 million square-foot) complex includes three hotels, private beaches and 58 bungalows on the Vouliagmeni peninsula 25 kilometers (16 miles) from Venizelos International Airport.
Since its opening in the 1960’s, the resort’s guests have included Jackie Onassis, Nelson Mandela, Tony Blair, Jane Fonda and Frank Sinatra, according to its website. In 1993 and 2009 Astir Palace hosted the Bilderberg conference, an invitation- only annual gathering of European and American business and political leaders named after the hotel in Holland where the first meeting took place in 1954.
Spokesmen for the National Bank of Greece, and the state privatization fund declined to comment on the matter. Qatari Diar didn’t immediately respond to calls and e-mails from Bloomberg seeking comment.

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