Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/62026
the early 2000s, to an estimated total of €11 billion to €15 billion over the past five years. "Turkey was very resilient dur- ing the economic troubled times of a few years ago," Dion said. Dozens of international retailers have entered Turkey in the past five years, including H&M;, which opened its first store there in late 2010 and added six more last year. Bath & Body Works, Victoria's Secret and apparel chain Zilli entered Turkey last year. As the new properties get built, re- tailers adopt ever-more-transparent business practices — replacing the old haggling styles and laissez-faire practices with consistent pricing, proper invoicing and other modern accounting methods, says Hakan Kurt, managing director of IstinyePark. "Now there is better record keeping and more value-added taxes, IstinyePark inspires Turkey's retail scene The fact that 17 million shoppers gravitate annually to Istanbul's IstinyePark mall and that every one of its nearly 300 tenant spaces is occupied may be evidence enough that the hybrid center is the gold standard in Turkey's retail industry. More telling, perhaps, may be the list of 240 retailers waiting to get into the upscale mall, which will be five years old in September. "No one is willing to give up a location," said Hakan Kurt, managing director of IstinyePark. "We have absolutely no turnover." Carved out of a hilly spot that forms a natural amphitheater in the ancient city's Istinye quarter, the posh mall combines a modern shopping expe- rience with nostalgic Turkish flair and a see-and-be-seen ambience. Here Armani, Fendi, Gucci and Prada join Istanbul's first 3-D Imax cinema, 46 restaurants and a gour- met market. "It is the highest-end mall in Turkey, and it's very well de- signed and extremely successful," said Yaromir Steiner, an Istanbul native and the CEO of U.S.-based Steiner + Associates, whose Easton Town Center, in Columbus, Ohio, was a model for IstinyePark. "It is considered a privilege for a tenant to get into a space." Three sections, each with its own distinc- tive architectural features — the open-air Lifestyle Centre piazza, the glass-domed Fashion Zone and the arenalike Grand Rotunda — meld into a multifaceted format that serves every socioeconomic level, though the high-end profile remains dominant. Store sales at IstinyePark greatly exceed those at the tenants' High Street locations, Kurt says. The mall has been widely imitated, but hardly duplicated. Since Isti- nyePark's opening in 2007, 15 Turkish shopping centers have come along using "park" in their name, notes IstinyePark designer Roy Higgs, of Baltimore-based De- velopment Design Group. One rea- son the center works so well may be the substantial creative license the property's owners, Zafer Yildirim and Zafer Kursun, principals of the Istanbul-based Orjin group of com- panies, gave Higgs from the start. Higgs recalls a seminal moment in the design stage. "Zafer Kursun told me: 'Roy, I want you to ensure that the design is the best in the country and the best for 50 years to come, and I want you to pick the best materials.' " Higgs asked how far Kursun was willing to go. "I want you to take advantage of me, Roy," came the reply. The owners were set on an enclosed mall, but Higgs pushed for a hybrid. "I just didn't think another fully enclosed center was the answer, because Istanbul is accustomed to vibrant street shopping," Higgs said. "And there was some push- back from leasing consultants on that too." After a tour of some of America's best malls and a close look at Steiner's successful hybrid Easton project, Yildirim and Kursun relented and approved inclusion of the open-air section. Originally, that section was to be only half its present size, but eager interest among prospective tenants necessitated expansion. Today the mall's highest volume of sales per square meter is realized in that open-air section, says Kurt. "We are a tremendous amount of tourism," he said. "IstinyePark is becoming a destination for neigh- boring countries." (Management declined to disclose those sales numbers.) The mall section, completed at a cost of $250 million, was expanded as well — from 46,500 square meters (500,000 square feet) of leasable space to about 83,600 square me- ters. Originally, the owners wanted to put a supermarket on the first story, but the planners persuaded them to allow a gourmet food court instead, as a complement to the luxury retail. — Steve McLinden 210 SCT / MAY 2012