On 8 August 2025 the Municipality of Alimos pre-approved the building permit for the redevelopment of Alimos Marina. This consent comes immediately before the permit itself. It is municipal paperwork, but it is also the point at which a rebuild worth approximately €100 million moved from drawings towards works. The marina is at Alimos, on the Athens Riviera, the stretch of coast south of the city. It is one of the largest in the Mediterranean and the largest in Greece, and from the autumn of 2026 it will be a building site as well as a marina.

The municipality approved the land side of the project: 18,500 square metres of buildings across a shore zone of 210,000 square metres, for commercial, tourist, cultural and sporting use. The pre-approval confirms that the scheme may be built as drawn. The permit then follows on the detail. That permit was issued on 11 May 2026. The developer is REDS, of the Ellaktor group. REDS is the group’s property company, and it plans to begin works in the autumn of 2026.

The process took longer than the announcement suggests. The joint ministerial decision that set the zoning and the environmental terms was issued in June 2024. The final studies went to the authorities in October 2024. Some 19 months then passed between those studies and the permit that answered them.

The marina today

The harbour is already large. Its permanent berths number 1,100, of which 50 take yachts over 25 metres. They lie across a sea area of 428,000 square metres. The jetties run to 1,170 metres and the maximum depth is 6.5 metres. Behind the water is a dry dock area of 60,000 square metres. This is where boats are serviced, and it does more than any promenade to decide whether a fleet keeps its base here.

Many charters out of Athens start at this quay. A chartered yacht is boarded here on the first afternoon of a passage to the Cyclades, and returned here ten days later. What happens to the quay matters to anyone who charters from Athens.

Fewer berths, and larger ones

The rebuilt harbour is drawn as 979 berths, drawn for vessels of up to 50 metres. That is fewer berths than today, and the reduction is the point of the project. The marina has served a charter fleet of mid-sized boats, and it is being redrawn for larger ones. In a basin of fixed size, room for longer boats means fewer berths. A shore that is already full through the season will hold fewer boats than before, and hold them better.

The same is happening elsewhere in Attica, the region around Athens. A boat displaced from Alimos would need a berth on the same coast, where the marina at Agios Kosmas is also being rebuilt. While both are under works, there are fewer places for a vessel to lie than there were in 2024.

The land behind the quay

In the scheme REDS has published, the land behind the quay is open to the town, with no service yard fenced off from it. The buildings are low and broken into separate blocks among planting. The ground-floor buildings have green roofs, so the town looks down on planting instead of flat roofing. The plan adds more than 800 parking spaces. The coastal bicycle path runs through the site and meets the marina at several points. Planned uses include shops, offices, restaurants and boat rental offices, the Alimos Municipality Art Gallery and an information kiosk.

Opening a working harbour to the public is a familiar move on this coast, and it carries a familiar risk. A marina can come to be judged on its cafés more than on its fuel dock.

The concession and its figures

The Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund, the state body that manages public assets, awarded the concession in 2020. It runs for 40 years from 1 January 2021, with an option of 10 more years. Over the term, some €57.5 million goes to the state. That is made up of a one-off payment of €27.3 million, then a fixed annual sum and 16 per cent of the marina’s revenue each year. REDS holds a contract worth €48.3 million to carry out the works.

The marina already earns for the group. The property and hospitality division took in €18 million in 2025, and €13.8 million of it came from Alimos Marina, against €3.7 million the year before. In the first half of 2025 Ellaktor bought out the minority shareholders in REDS, so the developer is now wholly owned. The marina is the centre of the group’s property business, and it is being rebuilt with that weight on it.

For owners and charterers

For an owner or a charterer, the next few years are the harder part. Works will run through the seasons when the Saronic Gulf is busiest, on a shore with little spare room. The finished basin will take fewer boats than the one it replaces. In return, the harbour will be built for the larger yacht that has until now had to lie elsewhere. The drawings do not show whether it will still run as a disciplined working port once an art gallery stands on the quay.

Who is this for

Alimos suits an owner who wants a home berth close to central Athens, and a charterer setting out for the Saronic islands. The marina is about 40 minutes from both the port of Piraeus and Athens International Airport. On shore, all-day café-restaurants face the Saronic Gulf, and the Kalamaki Nautical Club and the Alimos Municipal Swimming Pool are part of the marina. At dusk, the lit apartment blocks of Athens rise behind the jetties, with the ridge of Hymettus beyond.