Certain procedures are pending in order to write and issue the planning permission received by the Municipality of Limassol for the high-rise building Aura, the tallest building proposed to date in Cyprus, which is intended to be constructed on the coastal avenue of Limassol, on the site previously operated by ERA Olympia department store. As "Entrepreneurial Limassol" has been informed, the pending procedures concern the implementation of the agreements concluded between the Local Authority and those interested in the project, which will make use of the Plan for the Provision of Urban Development Incentives for the purposes of Recovery of Development Activity in Cyprus. The outstanding issues also concern the agreements that have been reached between the Municipality of Limassol and those interested in the compensatory measures.
It should be noted that an application for the issuance of a building permit has not yet been submitted and with this data it is estimated that it will be submitted for approval before the Limassol Provincial Self-Governing Organization, under whose authority the licensing procedures will be carried out. As is well known, last March the Limassol Municipal Council validated a decision of the Council of Ministers that allows the consolidation of underground spaces and public roads for the benefit of development. A letter from the Land Registry was presented to the Municipal Council informing them of the decision of the Ministry to give the applicants "the right to use the underground passage", in Andrea Zaimi street. The deviation unifies the underground spaces of the development. In this way, the basements of Aura will be built under Andrea Zaimi Street, which will include public and private parking spaces. The Limassol Municipal Council approved the derogation by a majority.
For the Aura development, significant compensatory measures were secured by the Municipality of Limassol, which include the concession of a building on the ground floor for the operation of a gallery by the Municipality, 300 public parking spaces and the creation of a public square on the ground floor. The final agreements between the Municipality, the owners and Urban Planning, provide that the Aura tower will have 44 floors and a height of 181.5 meters. It will have 5 underground spaces, while the building will include a total of 136 luxury apartments of two, three and four bedrooms. The characteristic element of Aura is that its first level will start at 24.30 meters since the design foresees a gap between its two pillars for an unobstructed view, while a public square and park will be created on the ground floor.
As a reminder, Aura has been designed by the internationally prestigious architectural firm Foster+Partners, supported by a multitude of surveyors from Cyprus and abroad. As previously published, the implementation of the project no longer belongs to the CTC that had proposed it, but to the Bank of Cyprus subsidiary REMU (Real Estate Management Unit) and possibly to an investor to whom the plot will be sold. The issuance of the urban planning permit, according to the publications, will be the last act to restructure the bank loan of the CTC group.
