Ece Group, that has invested approximately 1 billion USD over the last 8 years in Turkish shopping center industry, has started the construction of Marmara Park Shopping Center in Beylikduzu. Marmara Park is being built on the plot in Beylikduzu where Tatilya - a well-known entertainment park - used to be located. The shopping center projected to be completed by 2010 will also be home to a German home electronics retail chain entering the Turkish market for the first time. The center will have 100,000 square meters of leaseable space and is expected to attract 1 million visitors per year.

Andreas Hohlmann, the president of the group's operations in Turkey  mentioned that the group currently owns Ankamall, the largest shopping center in Turkey with a leaseable space of 108,000 square meters. Once completed, Marmara Park with a gross construction area of around 300,000 square meters will be one of the largest of its kind in Europe. Hohlmann also said that the group has shared the project with over 250 retailers in Europe and the U.S. that they work with and they are expecting for some of these companies to first enter the Turkish market with Marmara Park. Some Turkish retailers also use the group's activities in Europe to secure spaces and make their entries to the European retail market.

Over the last years, there have been project announcements for around 20 other shopping centers to built in the same area as Marmara Park. Hohlmann noted that the location of some of these projects are not correctly chosen and some are not expected to be completed as announced. Hohlmann noted that the population is increasing rapidly in Turkey unlike Germany and the young population prefers to spend long hours in shopping centers. In Germany, while the centers must be closed at 18:00pm, in Turkey, people choose to spend long hours in the centers and movie theatres is an integral part of the center designs.

Ece Turkiye was found by German Ece Group in October 2000 and is active in planning, developing, marketing and managing shopping centers in Turkey with its partner, GGP Group of America. The group manages Metrocity, Beylikduzu Migros, CarrefourSA Maltepe Park and Town Center in Istanbul; AnkaMall in Ankara; Antalya Migros in Antalya; and Espark in Eskisehir.