On 4 March 2025 the Interministerial Committee for Strategic Investments admitted three tourism projects to the strategic regime, a fast-track licensing status. Together they were worth €1.22 billion. The largest of the three, at €524 million, was the conversion of the NA.VI.PE. port at Platygiali, in the Gulf of Astakos, into a tourist port for mega yachts. Its promoters call the scheme the Nautilus Project. It is drawn as 350 berths, 105 of them for vessels above 40 metres.
What the committee admitted
The committee sat under the Minister of Development, Takis Theodorikakos. With him sat the Minister of Environment and Energy, Theodoros Skylakakis, the Minister of Culture, Lina Mendoni, the Minister of State, Makis Voridis, and the Deputy Minister of National Economy and Finance, Nikos Papathanasis. The investing company named in the decision is Astakos Terminal S.A. The decision states its object plainly: the conversion of the Platygiali port into a tourist port for mega yachts, with commercial uses and high-specification tourism and leisure services, in the Astakos district of Aetolia-Acarnania. The scheme’s strategic environmental study puts some 700 permanent jobs against the construction period, and about 1,150 once the port is working.
The two projects admitted alongside it were both resorts: €474 million at Ermionida and €224 million on Megalonisos in the Petalioi islands, off Euboea. Only the third was a harbour, and it carried the largest sum.
The port beneath it
Astakos already has a working deep-water commercial port, built for containers and bulk cargo. For most of its life it has run well below the capacity it was built for. The promoters’ own material calls it a dormant deep-water container port, and they aim to turn it into a marine village with more to it than a quay and a car park. The site covers 1,778 stremmas, about 178 hectares, of shore and hinterland. A stremma is the Greek land measure of 1,000 square metres.
That history is the argument for it. A yacht above 40 metres has no shortage of anchorages in Greece. What it lacks is depth, quay length, fuel, power and a yard within reach, in a place where it can be left between seasons. Platygiali was engineered for ships much larger than yachts. The Nautilus scheme proposes to spend its €524 million on what a home port needs: water, sewerage, an upgraded energy supply, a hotel, residences and a business quarter. Because the coast here is already deep, none of it has to go on dredging.
Why 105 is the number that matters
Of the 350 berths drawn, 105 are set aside for yachts over 40 metres. The scheme rests its case on that share. Greece is where the large fleet cruises, but on the whole it is not where the fleet is kept. A single harbour with 105 places above 40 metres would change the arithmetic of the eastern Mediterranean season at once. That is why the promoters put it forward as the largest mega-yacht marina drawn anywhere.
Geography helps too. Platygiali is on the Ionian side, sheltered by the inner islands, with three airports within easy reach, at Aktio, Araxos and Ioannina. Athens is about 3 hours away by road. By sea it lies some 950 nautical miles from Monaco, 450 from Malta, 300 from Montenegro and 1,050 from the Suez Canal. It is a plausible place to keep a yacht that works both ends of the Mediterranean.
The names on the drawing
Astakos Terminal sits under APE Investment Property, the company through which Alpha Bank and Piraeus Bank hold the estate. The master developer is MYMAR Nautilus Investments Limited, a Cyprus company formed from the yachting and infrastructure trades to carry out the redevelopment of Platygiali Bay. Archirodon is named as project manager and EPC contractor, which means it handles engineering, procurement and construction. A1Yachts and BWA are named for mega-yacht management and facility services, Deloitte as financial adviser and WATG for the masterplan.
The scheme was filed with Enterprise Greece in 2023, and the strategic designation followed on 4 March 2025. That designation is a licensing status under Law 4864/2021, and no construction has started. Fast-track consent shortens the road but does not complete it. What the March decision changed is that a project discussed for years gained a legal standing it did not have in February.
What it would change
For a client who keeps a yacht in Greek waters, the Ionian has long been the least served end of the country. Corfu and Lefkas hold as much of the fleet as they can, and beyond them the coast has only anchorages. A home port at Astakos would give the inner Ionian a place to winter, a yard, and a reason for a large yacht to arrive in April instead of passing through in July. It would also bring the Gulf of Astakos, which most owners know only as a name on a chart, into the itinerary.
Whether it is built remains open, and in March 2025 nobody knew. Later, the strategic environmental study went to public consultation in 2026, and in July 2026 the municipal council of Xiromero gave a favourable opinion on it by a wide majority. The environmental and spatial approvals are still ahead. What is settled is the intent and the number, and that on 4 March 2025 the Greek state put its licensing process behind them.
Who is this for
Once built, the Nautilus Project would suit owners who keep a large yacht in the Mediterranean all year and want a home close to it. The renderings show a deep bay ringed by olive-covered hills, with low green-roofed buildings and terraced residences rising above the pontoons. Along a low stone jetty, a village of pink, ochre and white houses with tiled roofs faces clear turquoise water. The wooded islands of the inner Ionian lie in the distance. The promoters describe it as a sustainable home port.
