#poulis

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Athens. Omonoia

Metrosolitude

Photo by Vagelis Poulis

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Creating a Golf Destination in the Hills of Greece

On the southwestern Peloponnese coast of Greece, in walking distance from the beach, Thodoris Poulis, a construction foreman, pointed up recently at half a dozen newly built homes on the hillside, each with a sweeping view of the Bay of Navarino.

“The older sort of development with a few small houses is going away,” he said, “and we’re getting more large stand-alone homes — expensive builds, in the style of villas.”

As he spoke, he was overseeing work on what will become just such a villa; dubbed the Lemon Project, this home near the town of Pylos will have a pool, a sea view and landscaped gardens, complete with citrus orchard.

The developer of that property, Iliopoulos Real Estate and Constructions, is a small family business run by two brothers, Minas and Vasilis Iliopoulos. Until recently, their business usually involved building or renovating modest homes on plots owned by others here in the Messenia region.

But with the Lemon Project, they have become developers, buying the land themselves and building a luxury home that they will put on the market for about 800,000 euros, or about $900,000.

Part of the reason they can do this can be found in a very different construction site only a short distance away.

In the hills above Pylos, large machines crack and pulverize boulders clawed from the ground.

Dwarfed by rising slopes on either side, they are carving out what will become an artificial lake — an irrigation reservoir for two new 18-hole golf courses. When completed in 2021, the courses will unfold over 370 acres across the hilltops and provide golfers with sweeping views of the olive groves and the sea below.