Olympic Park Tests Greek Recovery Talk After Privatization Flops

It’s almost a decade since crowds swarmed across the old Athens airport, which was transformed into one of the main venues for the 2004 Olympics. Now, stray dogs rather than athletes weave among the silent stadiums as a skeleton crew of security guards keeps watch.

Weather-beaten road signs point the occasional visitor to the baseball diamond and canoeing center, where weeds sprout through cracks. Dying and untended palm trees dot the landscape. Welcome to Hellenikon, Europe’s largest unused tract of urban real estate, an area that’s twice the size of New York’s Central Park, and the epitome of all that’s wrong with Greece’s asset-sale program -- and where its greatest opportunity may lie.