By the sea and next to the remains of the Fertilizer Company, our Municipality, after the exclusion of the 86 decares from their disposal by the Piraeus Port Authority (PPA) and the concession of the coastal front by the state, in 2015, during the mayoralty of Christos Vrettakos, started working on the setup of the site and in 2017 the project was finished, having created with minimal funds and equal forces a model space for walking and various activities (cultural and athletic) offering at the residents of the city as well as the visitors something obvious, access to the sea at a coastal municipality where until now the sea was inaccessible and identified with heavy industry and pollution.
In 1909 the Greek Company of Chemical Products & Fertilizers Limited was founded at the desolate space west of the port of Piraeus. The Company´s purpose was the production and the selling of acids, fertilizers, and all in all chemical products. After the end of World War I, the evolution of the Company was abrupt. The initial number of 200 workers reached 2,500 workers while during the 1950s, there were over 3,500 workers.
The operation of the Fertilizer Company – probably the biggest industrial unit inside the capital of the Greek state– established the coastal front of Piraeus as the epicenter of the industrial zone of the capital and defined the evolution of the inhabited area and the wider region for the 100 years that followed.
as well as nine additional services supporting the production process.
After the 1970, the Company’s internal problems, the decrease of the agricultural production, the changes on the taxation of businesses, and the overall phenomenon of the deindustrialization of the Greek economy led the factory to a long-lasting crisis until its definite closure in 1993. Hundreds of employees were left unemployed while the installations passed over to the National Bank of Greece due to the Company’s debts. Most of the buildings were torn down in 2003, several years after the closure of the Company.
The Central Council of Modern Monuments evaluated as preservable very few of the 109 building installations of the Fertilizer Company. The Energy Facility, the complex of the Glass Factory with the Silo with the chimney, the building of the Slaughterhouses, the Water tower and the Institute of Chemistry as well as the Krakaris Conveyor Belt were saved.