Zirve Eki - ISTANBUL REstate

34 GYODER
Gayrimenkul Zirvesi 10
situation. Then we created some special activities, for example a
concert over there and also small activities. For example, parking
lots. They were empty. What can we do, how can we use this space?
And during summertime, we created Special Olympics for the kids
and the students. So we brought the people to our shopping center.
And so, we increased the attitude.
Another idea was transportation idea; this was an idea didn't cost
any euro for Espark and for its retailers. because there was a smart
guy. He said, "I have this bus. I can paint this bus and then I can
travel and transport the people for my own reason, to your shopping
center" We said "ok, that is a pretty good idea. So, let's work
together." This was a good news and the newspaper broadcast your
activities. Other one, so we worked together. With some of the
retailers prevent new activities, so we did this also to other shopping
centers. Here is one in Istanbul. Very created, so and the Hollman,
our General Manager, he said, "you have to talk about the 'wow
effect'". This was one of these. We were celebrating our performing
the world record in scuba diving, Chester, one of our shopping
centers. We created some big concerts around 40.000 people at
AnkaMALL, in Ankara. So we really created some spectacular
activities. We made some activities at Migros in Antalya. And so,
also we did some activities in Greece. You know, Greece is also
under big pressure, on the crisis right now. We celebrated the
world cup with Roger Milla over there. So, small activities, but
really to show the retailers we are standing together and we
work together.
These were the short-term activities. Now, I want to show you
the long-term perspective. I want to show you one of our shopping
centers in Hamburg. It is the Alstertal-Einkaufszentrum. It is
located in Hamburg, in the north of Hamburg. A very rich, it is
near the headquarters of our company. What does that mean to
have long term perspective and always how to work together
and increase and establishing shopping center? We were following
on with the idea of "size matters". So we said this was the first
step, this was opened in 1970. We had 100 retailers and sales
area of 32.000 square meters. 32 thousand square meters and
one hundred retailers. Now I show you the four next steps that
we were following during the last forty years. It is still under the
management of ECE. It is still owned by ECE. Then, we said ok,
first step after 1990 years we integrated a couple of new shops
and a small increase of shops only by 20%. What was going
on?The new extension and the new warehouse. What happened
afterwards? Then the third step. It was in the beginning of the
90s within increase of the sales area by ten thousand meters and
now we had 160 retailers there . And then fourth step, that was
just recent one. We finished it four years ago. Another big
extension by 70.000 square meters. Now we have 60.000 square
meters and we increased. Now we have 240 retailers there. This
is what I mean long term perspective for real estate business and
for a project. For the years we increased from 100 to 240 shops.
So long term perspective means is always to invest in your
shopping centers.
Another example is also from Hamburg about revitalization of
a shopping center. We are talking about the shopping center
called Hamburger Straße. This was the first shopping center. It
15 Haziran 2010
was built in the 60s in Hamburg. For long time, one of the biggest
shopping centers because, you can figure out, it is a retail area of
53.000 square meters. But the problem was that there was no
long term management for this shopping center. So, what happened
to this shopping center was decreasing. The retailers were going
out and leased out from the shopping center was around 50 or
60% in the year 2005 and 2006. But we always believed in this
shopping center. It was owned by a competitor of us. We said
that we will buy it and we will revitalize the shopping center. We
bought it and we invested heavily, a lot of money and we created
a very modern concept with this, with the new façade and also
with a new internal architecture scheme. And we invested almost
100 million Euros only for the revitalization of the shopping center.
We opened it just three weeks ago and all the retailers came back.
It is leased out by 100%. And also, this is what I am really surprised
about and what I am really lucky about. Some of the retailers that
were in former days at the shopping center, they came back.
Because they trusted us. So, this is long-term management with
shopping centers.
Now, let's go back to your country. When you look the statistics, it
shows declines of your country and you can see that the GDP, gross
rates, are better than in Europe. And that is also gives us the confidence
to invest in Turkey, and really to stay here and to go ahead. When
you look at the turnover figures after six shopping centers that are
under management by ECE Turkey, you can see that we have an
increase of the turnover figures in 2010. It is in average by more than
25%. This shows you that the consumer attitude is growing. This
gives us the confidence really to go ahead and going to start new
projects. We have our brand new project that we want to start at
the end of this year. We are in negotiations with the retailers to
convince them. It is called the Marmara Park. It is in the Beylikdüzü
area, here in Istanbul. And here we can say it is a very big shopping
center about 100.000 square meters and with 250 shops. You know,
Istanbul is much more bigger than Hamburg. So we can't wait forty
years as I showed in the example before to increase in 240 or 250
shopping center, shops. We start with 250 shops already and this
will be an investment of 250 million Euros. But we are planning to
invest at the end of this year together with partners in order to
establish, to create a new shopping center because we trust in this
market. We trust in your country. This is about Marmara Park. I hope
you get impression what it is about.
As I mentioned before, following on our guidelines; really long-term
perspective. And you always face crisis. Confidence in your own
business model that we have and this is very important to have longterm
and trustful partnerships that you can build on. That is the way
how we are dealing with crisis. So, I hope it was interesting enough
for you. And, as I said, thank you very much. It was a pleasure for
me to be here. Thank you for your attention.
Sunucu: Say›n Dunstheimer'in sunumuyla yabanc› yat›r›mc›n›n
Türkiye'deki yat›r›m f›rsatlar›n› dinleme flans›m›z oldu. Teflekkür ediyoruz
kendisine. S›radaki panelimiz Yeni D›fl Politika, Çevre Ülkeler ve
Gayrimenkul Yat›r›mlar›; Bu paneli Prof. Dr. Kerem Alkin yönetecek.
Alk›fllar›n›zla sahneye davet ediyorum kendisini. Hoflgeldiniz. Siz yerinizi
al›rken de¤erli konuflmac›lar›n›z› davet etmek istiyorum. Say›n Mehmet
Erktin, Tekfen Holding baflkan yard›mc›s›, Aabar Real Estate CEO'su
Say›n ‹brahim Eskiocak , Rönesans ‹nflaat Yönetim Kurulu Baflkan›
Say›n Erman Il›cak, Do¤an Holding Genel Koordinatörü Say›n Dr. Nebil
‹lseven, ve son olarak, Say›n Özdem Sanberk, de¤erli eski Büyükelçi.
Hoflgeldiniz de¤erli konuklar, sözü sizlere b›rak›yoruz.