Acteeum Group, a privately-owned real estate development and asset management company, over the weekend launched “Ancora Samsun,” its first project in Turkey, which includes a five-star hotel and a shopping center. The company announced details of the project at a press conference in Samsun, a Black Sea city 415 kilometers north of Ankara, over the weekend.

Sunday's “cornerstone ceremony” was held with the participation of Binali Yıldırım, transport minister and Faruk Nafiz Özak, public works minister.

Acteeum, founded in May 2006, is headquartered in the Channel Islands and operates in the Netherlands, Turkey, Ukraine and Georgia. “Turkey constitutes our largest business portfolio, with over 820 million euros in total project value within our 1 billion euros worth total project portfolio,” said Tomasz Szewczyk, general manager of Acteeum Turkey.

Six different projects:

The group will operate six projects in six different cities – Istanbul, Adana, Şanlıurfa, Kahramanmaraş, Tokat and Samsun – in participation with Meinl European Land, an Austrian real estate investment company. Acteeum will build a five-star hotel in Samsun besides a shopping center while also building shopping centers in various other cities under the name Ancora.

Ancora Samsun, the first project of the company in Turkey, includes a four-level shopping center with over 62,000 square meters of space available for lease, anchored by a 8,000-square meter hypermarket, a cinema, an electronic store and leisure facilities with an underground parking for 1,750 cars. The project also includes a 17-floor five-star hotel with 156 rooms and a conference center. It is expected to be completed in the last quarter of 2009.

“We launched our first investment in Samsun due to its location that connects Turkey to the Black Sea. The city's port is the largest one in the region in the context of trade volume, as well as being the junction of the natural gas pipelines coming from Russia and Kazakhstan,” said Szewczyk. “Samsun is also a good location for us to expand into Kazakhstan and Armenia.”

Investing nationwide:

Acteeum Group paid $34 million for the 33,000-square meter area to build the hotel and the shopping center facility in Samsun. The group will also build a shopping center facility in Istanbul, Adana, Şanlıurfa, Kahramanmaraş and Tokat. “We will build the largest shopping center facility on Istanbul's Anatolian side, investing 360 million euros,” said Szewczyk.

Ancora Istanbul, expected to be completed by the end of 2011, will include a four-level shopping center with 105,000 square meters of space available for lease, anchored by a hypermarket, a Do-It-Yourself store, department stores and leisure facilities.

The company plans to open its Şanlıurfa and Adana shopping center facilities in 2010. Kahramanmaraş and Şanlıurfa shopping centers will be opened by 2009, Szewczyk said.

Ancora Adana will be built on an area of 14 hectares, which will include a shopping center facility. The facility will be in a convenient location, close to the city center.

Ancora Şanlıurfa will include a shopping center with 45,000 square meters of space available for lease, anchored by a hypermarket, an electronic store and a Do-it-Yourself area.

Ancora Kahramanmaraş, meanwhile, will consist of a three-level shopping center with 55,000 square meters of space available for lease. The facility will include a hypermarket, a cinema, an electronic store and leisure facilities with an underground parking for more than 1,500 cars.

Ancora Tokat will be built on a 25,000-square meter area, anchored by a hypermarket, an electronic store and a cinema. “The project will be the first and the biggest modern shopping center of the city,” said Szewczyk.

“Turkey deserves even larger projects. We believe in the country's potential and are confident of its strong economic fundamentals,” he continued. “We are the experts in building shopping centers throughout Europe.  We aim to double our investments in Turkey within a couple of years.”