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Konstantinos Santikos joins ULI Greece & Cyprus Executive Committee
Konstantinos Santikos, a hospitality entrepreneur, has joined the ULI Greece and Cyprus Executive Committee
ULI Greece & Cyprus 2020 Virtual Annual Conference
November 3, 2020
ULI Greece & Cyprus successfully held its second Annual Conference on Wednesday 23 September 2020, attended by more than 90 professionals from various disciplines of the Greek real estate industry and abroad, including investors, financiers, lawyers, architects, valuers, and real estate consultants. The event was held virtually.
The conference focused around the theme of, “Building Resilient Cities: Profit fits Purpose”. The conference explored resilient cities and their ability to respond and recover effectively from shocks; a health crisis, an economic crisis or an environmental disaster. The benefits of good infrastructure and the importance of high-quality education, health and wellbeing, smart and digital technologies, and clean growth policies. These are some of the characteristics of resilient cities. We then delved into whether these cities become more attractive for talent, business and capital due to resilience and so on.
The conference was moderated by Eri Mitsostergiou, Chair of ULI Greece & Cyprus and Director of European Research, Savills.
The opening keynote speaker, Maria Vassilakou, Vienna Solutions, Urban Transformation Consulting – Urban Transitions Management, and Former deputy mayor of Vienna / Chief tech officer, highlighted the qualities and characteristics that make a city more resilient to a health crisis, an economic crisis or an environmental shock and furthermore, how can they recover faster? Maria’s presentation was on “Preparing for the expected and the unexpected – how to develop a resilience strategy”.
The session was followed by presentations, panel discussions and a thought-provoking debates;
- Trevor McIntyre, Global Director, Placemaking and International, IBI Group, gave a presentation on, “Redefining wellness in the community”. Trevor outlined the role of the urban environment and buildings on ensuring the wellness of its citizens and how smart technologies can achieve this.
- Ioannis Orfanos (Member of the Executive Committee, ULI Greece & Cyprus and Partner at Arbitrage Real Estate) moderated a very insightful panel discussion with Lina Liakou, Managing Director, Europe and the Middle East Global Resilient Cities Network, pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation and Trevor McIntyre, Global Director, Placemaking and International, IBI Group. Orfanos commented, “Trevor’s presentation about the role of the urban environment on ensuring the wellness of its citizens followed up by an open discussion on what urban resilience means and what makes a city truly resilient. The discussants highlighted the importance of urban resilience in the context of the current health crisis and explained how cities are increasingly competing to attract and retain talent in order to become competitive and grow. The panel also emphasised the contribution of smart technologies and low carbon buildings in enhancing and achieving resilience.”
- Olga Itsiou, Technical Director of Dimand was interviewed by Eri Mitsostergiou. The interview focused on impact investment, best practices in mixed-use development with a focus on sustainability, health and resilience in order to having a positive long term impact on local communities and the environment.
- Konstantinos Santikos (Member of the Executive Committee, ULI Greece & Cyprus and Managing Director, Santikos Collection) moderated a very interesting debate for the hospitality sector between Nikos Hadjos, Director Europe (Greece – Cyprus – Malta), International Hotel Development, Marriott International and Oriol Peña, Senior Director of Asset Management, HIP. The discussion focused on the hospitality sector which is facing major challenges under the impact of the pandemic on travel. It is important for both panelists to treat this crisis as an opportunity to evolve rather than to change in strategy. Both agreed that even though business travel might affect city properties, leisure hotels will strive in the next years to come.
- Tassos Kotzanastassis (Managing Director at 8GCP) moderated the final session on “Capital markets – Scaling up on resilience – does it payback?”. Aleksandra Njagulj, Global Head of ESG – CBRE Global Investors. Alexandros Moulas, Commercial Director, Lamda Development S.A. and Daniel Chang, Managing Director of Investment and Asset Management, Hines, were involved in a lively discussion about the increasing importance of ESG as a proxy for resilience in underwriting and asset management, the various benchmarks in use and the way social and governance aspects are becoming as pervasive as environmental ones
The conference was generously sponsored by Hines, Piraeus Real Estate, Orilina Properties REIC and Potamitisvekris Law Firm.
Please note that the recording of the conference will be available on Knowledge Finder later on this month*