Single bidder clinches 10-year Old Limassol port deal for 26 mln

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A Cypriot expatriate with business interests in the U.S. was the sole bidder for the Limassol Old Port facilities, clinching the ten-year tender for an annual lease of 2.6 mln euros, 300,000 euros more than the minimum offer.

The Cyprus Ports Authority had given out to tender the ground facilities of the old port in June, which was recently renovated at a cost of 17.8 mln euros, more than double the initial cost of 8 mln that was planned in 2010.

The old port, that includes 18 new buildings and two that were recently renovated, cover a commercial space of 5,800 sq.m. and was offered in an open tender for a ten-year lease upwards of 2.3 mln a year, with an option to renew for a further ten years, Despite several local investors expressing interest CPA chairman Aleccos Michaelides said that it received a single bid by a Cypriot investor in the US.

The bid will be assessed by a committee appointed by the Authority’s board, hopefully by the end of August.

The new investor will undertake to rent out the facilities to third parties, but also to maintain and repair the buildings.

One of the two renovated buildings will house a winery and the other will be used for exhibition purposes. The 18 new buildings will house four restaurants, bars and cafés, three tavernas, three snack bars, 17 shops and seven floors of office space.

The old port project also includes a building that houses the Fisheries Department, as well as a fishermen’s cove as the facility will continue to operate as a fishing harbour and fish market. The Fisheries Dept. will be responsible for the anchorage of the fishing and other vessels.

The project area also includes a piazza-square, parking spaces and a deck and public bridge from where pedestrians can look onto the harbour area, as well as the adjacent newly built Limassol Marina.