Trio vie for chance to put Larnaca in top spot

Bids close in race for huge development project

BIDS have closed from three parties interested in the massive development project to turn the Cyprus port of Larnaca into the eastern Mediterranean’s leading cruise hub.
This is the largest single development project yet undertaken in Cyprus with the cost estimated, conservatively, at €2bn ($2.6bn).

The decision on the preferred bidder is expected at the end of December, with the project then taking five years to complete from award of the contract. There are three international consortia fighting for the 35-year contract to manage and operate Larnaca port.

This is not just a new port construction and operating contract. It involves a massive project that will not only see Larnaca transformed into the area’s top
cruise port but also involves a large scale marina project coupled with a five-star hotel, leisure and retail development linking all areas via a promenade to central
Larnaca and its beaches.

The consortia bidding for this project involve some of the biggest names in the shipping and cruise industry, including Louis Cruise Lines, Costa Crociere, specialist divisions of Amsterdam Port and the Port of Singapore Authority and Dubai Ports World.

Consortium A is led by Cyprus company A Vouros Investment and its partners
include Singapore Cruise Centre, DP Architects, Joannou & Parakevaides and J&P Avax.

Consortium B is called the Larnaka-Zenon Consortium and its partners include French construction company Bouygues Batiments International, Iacovou Brothers, Amsterdam Logistics Group, Lievense Consulting Engineering, Louis Private, Petrolina (Holdings)
Public and Marinaman. This consortium is also believed to include Costa Crociere.

Consortium C is led by Cyprus company D J Karapatakis & Sons and its partners include Camper & Nicholsons Marinas, Wimberly Allison Tong & Co, ERA Economic Research Associates, Spanopoulos Group and Odel International of the US in a joint venture with Parsons Brickenhoff.

Also believed to be involved with the three consortia are Dubai Ports World
and a leading US cruise operator. Capt Pambis Vassiliou, Cyprus Port Authority’s port manager for Larnaca, told Lloyd’s List that the government decided to make Larnaca the country’s leading cruise port a few years ago.

Now, with the bids closed the project has reached the reality stage and the
vision is about to be realised. At present Larnaca does not have any cruise business — that is all going to Limassol. It did have a regular calling in the Israeli-owned Dream, but this ship also now calls in Limassol.

Larnaca port can at present accommodate cruiseships up to 290 m at its South Quay with an alongside depth of 11.4 m. Smaller vessels use the North Quay, which is close to the port’s existing passenger terminal. The critical factor today in accepting
larger cruiseships is a vessel’s manoeuvrability.

The port’s inner turning circle is for 300 m vessels, but the new project expects to increase this to 450 m. Exact details of the proposals submitted to the development of the port as a cruiseship hub are confidential at present. But Lloyd’s List has learnt from one of the bidders that their plans include multiple cruiseship berths, each of more than 300 m length, besides a dedicated cruise terminal.

Although not known as a passenger port, Larnaca showed that it could handle a lot of people earlier this year when the crisis in the Lebanon saw 50,000 pass through the port in a very short time.

The three bids are now being studied in details by the Municipality of Larnaca, the Cyprus Public Works Department and the Larnaca Town Planning Department. Larnaca’s deputy mayor, Alexis Michaelide, believes that this massive project will not only put Larnaca firmly on the international cruiseship map, both for transit calls and turnround calls, but will also turn the city into a world-class tourist destination for pre and post-cruise tourists.

The present extensive expansion of nearby Larnaca International Airport, just 10 minutes from the port, will also play an important role in attracting cruiseship business to the new port.

Mr Michaelides told Lloyd’s List: “we are very happy that the whole project will be privately funded and not involve government money.”