Greece Dying to Sell $166M Luxury Resort

In a desperate bid for cash, Greece is trying to sell off a famed seaside resort and meet requirements of its bailout package, Bloomberg reports. For sale is the 3.3-million-square-foot Astir Palace complex, which has housed guests such as Frank Sinatra and Jane Fonda since opening in 1960. Asking price: around $166 million, plus much, much more for the land underneath. Good thing, too, considering Greece is behind on money-raising linked to $305 billion in bailout packages up to 2014.

If they fail, Greece may leave the euro and return to a low-value drachma. “We are in a prisoner’s dilemma,” said an official. “Only cooperation will drive the best outcome and if we don’t follow the banks’ lead, our property will be valueless.” One Catch-22 for potential buyers: The hotel will be worth far more if Greece leaves the euro and tourists flock there for the drachma. But, as one bank official points out, "any discussion about scenarios regarding Greece outside the euro zone is speculation." (More Greece bailout stories.)