The port will accommodate 250 vessels, including superyachts up to 60 meters long.
Billionaire Jiří Šmejc and his Emma Capital investment group are actively developing their conservative investments in port real estate. Together with partner company Tethys, they are building a new marina in the Greek port town of Ermioni, approximately 85 kilometers from Nafplio.
The project is being prepared by the Ermionida company, whose majority shareholder is the Tethys family office of Greek billionaire Nikos T. Vardinoyannis. Emma Capital holds a twenty-five percent stake in it and the total investment is estimated at more than 20 million euros, or just under half a billion crowns.
The Ermioni Marina will be built in a protected bay, the shape of which – approximately a kilometer long and 400 meters wide – provides a natural refuge from the waves. The port will be located in the northwestern part of the bay and is scheduled for completion in 2027.
The project includes 250 berths for recreational vessels, and the marina will be able to accommodate superyachts up to 60 meters in length. The depth of the port reaches 4.5 meters. It includes four floating concrete piers with a total length of 385 meters and a 62-meter-wide entrance to the port to ensure access even during heavy traffic.
The visual appearance of the project is designed by the renowned architectural studio Neiheiser Argyros. The buildings are inspired by the local development, i.e. single-storey houses and two-storey buildings typical of the region, and will be clad in local stone with traditional plasters.
The mainland part of the port will be home to shops, restaurants and a boutique hotel. The parking lot and access roads are located to the rear of the complex, so that the waterfront remains exclusively for pedestrians. Two large amphitheatre staircases open directly into the sea and will serve as boarding points for water taxis.
The marina in Ermioni is part of a broader plan by Czech billionaire Jiří Šmejc, who, under the banner of Marina 21 Emma Capital, is consolidating premium marinas for yachts and sailboats in the Mediterranean. In total, the group operates 1,129 sea and 206 dry berths on an area of over 375,000 square meters. The company has so far invested billions of crowns in land and marinas.
“We are buying one marina after another and trying to put them into a more unified group, such as D-Marin or ACI,” Emma’s investment director Pavel Horák, under whom this business falls, previously told Seznam Zprávy.
On the Croatian coast, Emma operates the Trogir marinas, Polesana in Pula, Nautica in Novigrad and, newly, the marina in Vela Luka on the island of Korčula. In Greece, the marina in Ermioni will operate in cooperation with the neighboring Porto Heli Marina, a member of the Union of Greek Marinas.
Other large Czech investment groups have also made a similar bet on maritime tourism. PPF invests in companies that rent or manufacture yachts. And KKCG owns a minority stake in the Italian luxury yacht manufacturer Ferretti.
Emma Capital Ermioni port photos
