Unlikely alliance against Corfu luxury resort

ATHENS (AFP) — An unlikely alliance of wealthy landowners, environment activists and residents has emerged on the Greek island of Corfu, where a disputed resort officially launched in July after a near-decade delay.

The 120-million-euro ($139-million) Kassiopi Project is situated in pine-forested Erimitis, one of the island’s most pristine areas that lies a short distance from the Albanian coast.

New York-based investment fund NCH Capital, which secured the property in 2016, plans to build a 90-room fivestar hotel, luxury residences and a marina.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has already drawn fire over his conservative government’s encouragement of projects in environmentally sensitive areas.

These include hydrocarbon exploration near marine wildlife habitats in the Ionian Sea, and the promotion of wind farms on Greek islands over local objections.

But the opposition usually consists of citizens’ groups and environmental organizations with little financial clout.

As Mitsotakis visited Corfu on July 11 to officially launch the Kassiopi Project, he drew a broadside from one of the area’s wealthiest property owners — British financier Nathaniel

Rothschild, a member of the prominent banking family.

In a pair of tweets, Rothschild branded the project “a total disaster” that takes Corfu back to “1970s style mass development” and “adds zero to the local economy.”

Rothschild, whose interests have included coal mining, said that the pristine Erimitis coastline faces “destruction” and added: “Mitsotakis is foolish to champion this project.”

British financier Ben Goldsmith, brother of Tory peer Zac Goldsmith, is another prominent critic.

Home to secluded villas and estates of other wealthy families such as the Agnellis, and visited by moguls and power-brokers, the northeastern part of Corfu has been nicknamed Kensington-on-Sea by British media.

A group of around 200 mainly British property owners on Corfu have also called on Mitsotakis to downsize the resort plan.

“Developing a hotel, along the lines proposed, on the sight of this pristine and historic ecosystem, with the consequential damage to wildlife, to the sea, and to the natural forest would be an affront to all who care about the environment,” the Corfu owners association wrote in a letter to Mitsotakis last year.