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                                                 Tersefanou Green Light

The long-awaited Tersefanou Golf Course, close to Larnaca airport, has finally been given the go-ahead in an agreement signed recently between the Cypriot government and the Medgolf Group.

The Cyprus Mail and the Financial Mirror were among many of the Cypriot press who reported on the ambitious €60 million plans for the Medgolf Larnaca Golf Course and Country Club. The project has been in the pipeline for a long time and many thought it would never see the light of day. However, we now know that the project will go ahead and the Medgolf Group has committed to finish it 2.5 years after ground is broken.

Tersefanou was one of 10 golf course projects due to start construction in 2010, but requirements were significantly tightened by the Town Planning Department in March 2009. It is thought that many of the delays on the project were caused by the government’s strict requirement that any new golf courses should be self-sufficient in terms of water supply via its own desalination plant and that the energy impact of the desalination plants should also be addressed.

The project will cover a total area of 1.6 million m2 and include an international standard 18-hole golf course with lakes and trees, a clubhouse and a luxury spa. The project will also include a total of around 500 properties – 300 of them luxury villas, with a village square, which will host musical and other community events.

A Medgolf spokesman said that it should take between 24 and 30 months to complete the initial stage of the project. This will include the necessary infrastructure and the desalination plant, which will supply the water for the project. Medgolf’s project spokesman, Floros Voniatis said that the project’s infrastructure will include internal roads built to high specifications set by the government.

The second phase, involving the 300 villas and 250 luxury apartments will form Phase 2 of the project and take 4-5 years to complete. Medgolf have decided to concentrate on infrastructure investment in a bid to help revitalise the local economy of Larnaca.

The other exciting development is that Medgolf has signed an exclusive contract with the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) which will manage the golfing facilities at Tersefanou and develop a PGA National Golf Academy on the site. It’s an exclusive agreement and means that the new course will be able to host major prestigious events in the future, such as the Ryder Cup – great for the Tersefanou course and good for the economy of Cyprus.

Author: Anne Hall