Filenews 25 May 2024 - by Ioanna Mantipia
The Limassol Municipality issues at the end of May the planning permission for the Aura skyscraper, which will be the tallest building in Cyprus with a height of 181.5 meters and will be erected on 44 floors. The new tower will be built on the site of the former ERA Olympia shopping mall, which has long been out of service.
At the moment, as philenews is informed, the procedures concerning the implementation of the compensatory measures set by the Limassol Municipality are in progress by the interested investors. Specifically, before granting the planning permit, interested parties must have prepared an incentive agreement for the creation of more than 300 parking spaces for public use as well as space on the ground floor for use as a gallery by the Limassol Municipality. A question mark, however, remains whether the gallery will be transferred to the Municipality or whether permission will be given for the exploitation of the space.
In addition to the above, interested parties will pay the amount of €214,000 as compensation following the decision of the Council of Ministers for the unification of underground spaces and a public road.
After the relevant agreement is prepared within the next week, the Planning Committee of the Municipality is expected to be informed and then the City Council will grant the planning permission to the interested parties. As it was made clear to us by a competent source, the permission will be given by the existing Municipal Authority before the Local Government elections.
This project has been designed by the internationally renowned architectural firm Foster+Partners, flanked by a number of foreign and Cypriot designers, with the aim, as mentioned by the designers of the project, to create a modern, ecological tower, harmoniously integrated at its bottom with the urban fabric of the city.
The proposed apartment building will rise 24 meters from the ground as if suspended above landscaped gardens, since its design foresees the creation of a public square and an urban park. The architects designed the skyscraper to start from the 7th floor in order not to affect the unobstructed view to the sea in all apartments.
