Shopping Centers Today

APR 2014

Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)

Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/277579

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 4 of 83

A p r i l 2 0 1 4 / S C T 5 C E N T E R S T A G E Fitting in piAzzA urfA pAys homAge to An old turkish city's heritAge By Bennett Voyles T hrough The ages, The ancient city of sanliurfa, in south- east Turkey, has seen languages, peoples, rulers and armies come and go. arguably the most recent, and perhaps most popular, of all these many changes ar- rived only last october: modern retail. This city of some 500,000, also called urfa, has had covered bazaars for hundreds of years, but its residents have never seen anything quite like Piazza urfa. The 44,000-square- meter (about 474,000 square feet) mall houses 125 stores and 24 restaurants and cafés, and it opened 95 percent leased. a joint venture of renaissance Development (one of Turkey's largest retail groups) and Denver-based retail development giant amstar, the project was de- signed by 5 Plus Design, a global firm based in hollywood, Calif. 5 Plus favors local materials, particularly wood and stone, and exterior ter- races. "We tried to keep it simple and straight- forward, but use nice materials," said Michael ellis, a 5 Plus partner. The firm also incorpo- rated an old grove of trees into the design. The center's design uses some distinctly Islamic features in many of the decorative pat- terns, ellis says. In most parts of the world, a ground-level retail concourse measures 10 to 12 meters wide, but in urfa this is closer to 15 meters (about 13 yards, versus 16 yards, respectively), the design firm says. "every- thing is relatively broad — the ground-level concourse, the second-level concourses, the food court," said ellis. "and they're just responding to the need for personal space." Turkey's largest cities have enjoyed increasing access to modern shopping over the past decade — at 322,300 square meters, the Is- tanbul Cevahir shopping and entertainment Centre was europe's largest shopping center between 2005 and 2011 — and now in Tur- key, as elsewhere in such big developing world markets as russia and China, developers are moving on to the second- and third-tier cities. Malls like Piazza urfa are popping up all over Turkey's smaller cities as the economy grows, and the amstar-renaissance team has been an important part of the movement. amstar and renaissance have opened two other malls this past year: the 64,000-square-meter Piazza sam- sun and the 49,000-square-meter Piazza Maras. a.T. Kearney's global retail development index last year rated Turkey the sixth-most at- tractive retail market in the world. There is a lot to like there, the consultant firm says. un- like its neighbors to the east or west, Turkey continues to grow. Disposable income in Tur- key has risen by some 3.6 percent a year since 2005, and the percentage of households earn- ing less than $15,000 a year has dropped from 53 percent to 45 percent. and there are a lot of Turks; at 74 million, Turkey is more popu- lous than France. These new malls may also be bringing out the half of the country that did not get much of a chance to go out before; at Piazza Maras, another 5 Plus–designed property, the food courts have proven popular with women, who feel more comfortable there than in the cafés in the traditional markets, ellis says. The new mall "becomes more than just a Walmart or some- thing where you're providing goods," he said. "It's giving an opportunity for a lifestyle that wasn't so available before." SCT C E N T E R S T A G E +1 646 728 3800 Fax: +1 732 694 1730 www.icsc.org S H O P P I N G C E N T E R S T O D A Y Editor in Chief eDMuND MaNDer +1 646 728 3487 E D I T O R I A L Managing Editor BraNNoN BosWeLL +1 646 728 3488 Copy Chief DaVID s. orTIZ Copy Editor VaLerIe DaVID Art Director JohN D. LeWIs Contributing Editors MIChaeL BaKer MarÍa BIrD PICÓ sTeVe BergsMaN JoeL grooVer MaTT huDgINs BeTh MaTTsoN-TeIg sTeVe M cLINDeN aNNa roBaToN BeNNeTT VoyLes A D V E R aMIe LeIBoVITZ +1 773 360 1179 aleibovitz@icsc.org suZaNNe TaNguay +1 646 728 3475 stanguay@icsc.org saLLy sTePheNsoN +1 847 835 1617 sstephenson@icsc.org Production Coordinator DaVID sTaCKhouse +1 646 728 3482 dstackhouse@icsc.org I C S C O F F I C E R S Chair man DaVID J. L arue President and CEO MIChaeL P. KerCheVaL Vice Presidents VINCeNT a. CorNo, CrX aDaM W. IFshIN MarTIN a. Mayer JohN r. MorrIsoN, CrX, CDP BruCe D. PoMeroy, CrX, CDP MarCus WILD Secretary-Treasurer KeNNeTh a. M cINT yre Jr., CrX Publisher ruDoLPh e. MILIaN, CrX, CMD, CsM For article reprints, call (866) 879-9144 or contact sales@fostereprints.com SCT (ISSN 0885-9841) is pub lished monthly. VOLUME 35, ISSUE 4 © 2014, International Coun cil of Shop ping Cen ters, 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020-1099; phone, +1 (646) 728 3800; fax, +1 732 694 1730. All rights reserved. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and ad di tion al mailing offces. Sub scrip- tions $70 per year; Canada and other foreign $99. Single- copy price $20 (May issue $30). For subscription informa- tion call +1 727 784 2000. POST MAS TER: Send address changes to Shopping Cen ters Today, Yizeth Vergara, 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020-1099. Publications mail agreement No. 41482022, return unde- liverable Canadian addresses to PO Box 503, RPO West Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill ON L4B 4R6. 5_SCT_APR14_Center Stage-Piazza Urfa.indd 5 3/10/14 3:31 PM

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Shopping Centers Today - APR 2014