Astir Palace bids to be opened next Monday
Astir Palace owners National Bank and the state privatization fund (TAIPED) will open the binding bids tabled on Wednesday for the hotel in southern Athens on Monday, December 9.
They received improved offers from all three suitors for the unit and although they have until next Wednesday to open the bids, reliable sources said that the two owners have decided to speed up the process and open them within three working days.
National and TAIPED were happy to see all three consortiums submit improved offers, as this means they will have bid more than the minimum set price, believed to be 380 million euros.
However, as the date for the completion of the hotel’s sale approaches, political hostility toward the transaction is growing, with eight opposition SYRIZA deputies tabling a question in Parliament on Wednesday regarding the change in the property’s land usage after the tender. They have branded the sale of the Astir Palace a “scandal.”
Vouliagmeni Mayor Spyros Panas also disagrees with the change in land usage and the creation of a 40,000 square meter residential area on the site, although he agrees with the utilization of the existing hotel complex.
