Dinos Lefkaritis on 'Land of Tomorrow': “Our goal is to transform this land into a green city”

“We named the project ‘Land of Tomorrow,’ a name we think is perfectly apt. The idea is to create a coastal community, with an emphasis on sustainability. A community that will be a landmark for the entire region and will attract new people and businesses from all over,” Dinos Lefkaritis, CEO of Lefkaritis Group of Companies has said.

Speaking at an 8 July evening event announcing the collaborations connected to the project, Lefkaristis continued, “Our vision is for this area to transform from industrial to a completely new destination that will enhance the valuable contribution of the city of Larnaca. As the natural evolution and expansion of Larnaca, it will be the legacy of the Lefkaritis family and an important influence for future generations and the region.”

Lefkartis had begun his address by taking a look back at the Group of Companies’ origins.

“I think you all know the Group of Companies of the Lefkaritis family. Our fathers, the first generation achieved so much, which showed the way of development to the second generation and we in turn to the third generation. It all started when Nikos and Takis Lefkaritis founded the first cooperative which evolved into the Lefkaritis Bros General Partnership, a distribution company - initially with trucks and then with buses - which became the largest transport company on the island. Kallis, Kikis and Nakis joined the company, strengthening it in turn,” he said.

In 1959, when they visited the facilities of an oil company in Greece, they thought of creating Petrolina in Cyprus, Lefkaritis went on to share. “The primary purpose was to serve the privately owned fleet of vehicles. A bold decision for the time. Everyone said then that they would fall on their faces.”

He continued that Petrolina was the first Cypriot oil company, with privately owned facilities on the coast of Larnaca. “Today the Lefkaritis Group is made up of various companies and is one of the largest organizations in Cyprus and has played a leading role in the economic development, prosperity and social progress of the island,” Lefkaritis noted.

In 2019, Petrolina's facilities were moved to Vassiliko, to new, privately owned state-of-the-art facilities which Lefkaritis noted was one of the largest investments made in Cyprus.

“With our move to Vassiliko and after the removal and demolition of all types of liquid fuel facilities on the Larnaca beach front, the realization of our vision for the development of the area began. A project that contributes to our efforts to diversify and engage in additional activities,” he said, adding, “This project that is starting today, is located exactly in the area where our companies used to maintain their facilities. Our goal is to transform this land into a GREEN city.”

He noted that, “Taking a holistic approach, the project unfolds an exciting and sustainable proposal for the future of Larnaca that will be both the natural extension of the urban space and a development perspective that will realize the city's goal of modernization and development.

After all, this is what Larnaca deserves. And because we want to ensure the success of this project, we invested in creating a strong team, able to design the master plan that will implement our vision in the best possible way.”

As Lefkaritsi noted, this group consists of our group of companies’ internal Land of Tomorrow team, the world-renowned architectural firm Foster + Partners which is the leading architectural group and has prepared the master plan, UDS architects, our local architectural team overseeing the project (architects of records), the ALA Planning Partnership, the environmental and traffic impact advisors, and Delfi Partners, project consultant.”

Lefkaritis also announced the start of a strategic partnership with bbf: for the first phase of the project, underlining, “This project starts now.”