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Here to stay? In 2003, Greece's highest court ruled that the construction of
The Mall was illegal. Further cases are pending
IT WAS a clear case of locking the door long after the horse had bolted.
In a decision that only recently came to light, an Athens appeals court last
month sentenced former Marousi mayor Panayiotis Tzanikos to 12 months in jail
for his involvement in The Mall, billed as the largest shopping complex in
southeastern Europe.
Located in the northern Athens suburb of Marousi, The Mall features 58,500m2
of rentable space, and 90,000m2 of underground area and was constructed on the
site that formally housed the Media Village for the 2004 Athens Olympics.
The complex was erected during the pre-Olympic building boom that involved a
number of large-scale projects across the city. Like many of these, the
construction of the Media Village and The Mall has been shrouded in
controversy from the start (see inset).
This, as well as upcoming court hearings, are expected to reignite interest in
the case, particularly given current controversies associated with new mall
projects in other parts of the city.
The three-member court handed Tzanikos his sentence on January 19.
The case had its roots in a slander action against Tzanikos. It was brought by
Dorilaos Klapakis, an architect, town planner and Mall opponent.
At two consecutive council meetings in April 2003, Tzanikos stated publically
that Klapakis' opposition to the development had ulterior motives and that he
was in the pay of rival business interests.
Pleas rejected
Tzanikos was found guilty in the first instance but lodged an appeal, which he
also lost.
Sentencing him to a year's imprisonment, as demanded by the public prosecutor,
the court rejected the plea by his lawyer that the sentence be mitigated on
account of his plaintiff's previous good record.
However, as the sentence is redeemable by paying a fine, the ex-mayor is
unlikely to see the inside of a jail cell.
In its deliberations, the three-member court went beyond the issue of the
slander allegations and revisited the controversial history of the mall's
development.
It rejected the former mayor's defence that The Mall had benefitted the
municipality, that it had caused no environmental damage, and that it was not
responsible for the municipality's massive debt.
In reaching its decision, the appeals court confirmed the 2003 unanimous
ruling of the all-member plenary session of the Council of State, Greece's
supreme administrative court.
In that decision, the court declared the construction of The Mall illegal on
the grounds it contravened Article 24 of the Greek constitution because it
would irrevocably damage the residential environment of the area.
Klapakis feels vindicated by the decision.
"The Mall has brought hundreds of thousands of visitors and cars to Marousi
and the traffic infrastructure is not prepared for them," Klapakis told the
Athens News.
"In addition, it has destroyed the trade of thousands of legal shop owners in
the area and beyond."
More cases
The ruling is considered to be highly significant, as it is the first in a
series of six court hearings scheduled for 2009 which will look into various
aspects of The Mall's construction.
On March 6, a plenary session of the Council of State will rule on the
constitutionality of the December 2003 law (see inset) passed by parliament to
expedite The Mall's construction.
Last year, a lower tier of the same court said the law was illegal for two
reasons. Firstly, it failed to protect the rights of citizens and, secondly,
because it did not ensure public participation in the planning process,
contrary to European legislation.
On April 30, a court is expected to hear a case taken by Marousi residents in
which they will demand that the construction company which built The Mall,
Lamda Development, and the former mayor, pay 600 million euro compensation to
the municipality.
"This will be compensation for the time that The Mall has been operating
illegally", Klapakis said. "I want to see the building demolished. It is
illegal and the Council of State has confirmed it."
The court cases may also prove damaging to the country's two potential ruling
parties given that the Pasok and New Democracy governments, before and since
the 2004 general election respectively, enabled the project to proceed.
This would make it difficult for either party to make any serious political
capital from any court outcome.
'Blatant crime'
Speaking to the Athens News, former municipal councillor and current Pasok MP
Sofia Sakorafa, who opposed the mall project from the start, said: "The Media
Village was the pretext for The Mall ... and it was on the same pretext that
the state passed legislation that allowed Lamda Development to erect a
75,000m2 structure on land that it did not own in a manner prohibited by the constitution."
Sakorafa added that "this project was identified from the start as a crime and
the environmental, traffic and commercial problems created in Marousi and the
wider region today confirm this".
"Indeed, we can talk about a blatant crime," said the onetime javelin thrower
and Olympic gold medallist, "a crime in which the perpetrators didn't even
keep the basic pretext in that the manufacturing company failed to meet its
commitment to create an 80-hectare green park."
"It's not pleasant to have one's worst fears confirmed," she said, concluding
that, "the aim of all politicians is to identify and prevent wrongdoing - and
not to live with its consequences of wrongdoing."
While he welcomes his vindication, Klapakis criticises the lack of media
attention in the issue. Apart from a report in Kathimerini, the issue has not
been raised by any other major national newspaper.
No mall too small
The decision comes at a time when the proposal to build a 170,000m2 mall
alongside the proposed new Panathinaikos stadium in Eleonas encountered the
opposition of citizens groups.
Last week, the Open City municipal council group, which is associated with
Syriza, published the results of a VPRC poll which claimed that while 71
percent of Athenians were in favour of the new stadium, 52 percent were
against the project including a mall of that size.
The Mall: a history
Former Marousi mayor Panayiotis Tzanikos is inseparable from the development
of the Athens 2004 Olympic Media Village that subsequently became the Athens Mall.
Under the original plan, the Media Village was to involve only 15 hectares.
In 2001, Tzanikos pieced together municipal land for it, drawing on property
bought from locals and real estate provided by the Workers' Housing
Organisation (OEK).
A Dutch company secured the tender to build the 60,000m2 development, which,
apart from 700 apartments for accredited Olympic Games journalists, would also
feature a shopping mall with 200 stores, cinemas, leisure outlets,
restaurants, a hotel and other facilities.
This changed suddenly in early 2002, when Tzanikos formed a municipal company
to manage the project's construction, outraging some of his own municipal officials.
The majority share (95 percent) in Tzanikos' company was subsequently acquired
by Lamda Development, which went on to build the Media Village, investing 400
million euros in the project.
Lamda Development is part of the Latsis group of companies.
In April 2002, the then public works minister, Vasso Papandreou, tabled a law
which increased the land earmarked for the media park from 15 to 25 hectares
and doubled the building coefficient permitted in the area.
New Democracy, then in opposition, voted against the bill, which was passed
with a 135-109 majority
The following year, the Council of State ruled that the ministerial decision
which permitted the Media Village's construction on residential land ran
contrary to Article 24 of the constitution on environmental protection.
The court maintained that the specifications of the Media Village, which now
consisted of office villas expected to accommodate some 1,600 journalists,
would alter the area's status to urban.
Despite pleas from residents that the Council of State ruling be respected, in
December 2003 the Pasok government enacted another law in an effort to
complete the project.
When The Mall finally opened its doors to shoppers in late November 2005, its
owners said they expected an annual profit of 25 million euros from the venture.
