With a groundbreaking ceremony, the construction of ESPARK Shopping Center has been started on the 14th of July with the participation of the Lord Mayor of Eskiþehir, the Mayor of Tepebaþý Municipality, the national/international retailers and ECE Türkiye top management.
ESPARK is located right in the city center of Eskiþehir - a city in the Mid-West Anatolia with 700.000 inhabitants including the surrounding districts. The new and modern Shopping Center, which has an investment volume of $100 million, is planned to be opened in the 3rd Quarter of 2007. The investor of ESPARK is CURA/GGP Gayrimenkul Ýnþaat ve Geliþtirme A.Þ. ESPARK is the first investment project of the group in Turkey.
About 1.500 part-/full-time workplaces will be created during the construction of ESPARK Shopping Center with a construction area of approx. 95.000 m². ECE Türkiye has awarded MESA Mesken Sanayi A.Þ. as a general contractor for ESPARK. After completion of the construction, ESPARK will be the largest shopping center in Eskiþehir with 40.000 m² leasable area, 150 shops and 1.100 parking lots. In addition to the national and international retail shops, restaurants and cafes with a sales area varying from 20 to 150 m², a supermarket of approx. 3.600 m² and a cinema of 3.000 m² will form the attractive branch and tenant mix of this new and high-quality center.
"During the preparation of the project, we designed a modern shopping center that fits to the modern city of Eskiþehir, while preserving the historical components on the plot" said Tevfik Türel, General Manager of ECE Türkiye Proje Yönetimi A.Þ.
With the opening of ESPARK, there will be job opportunities for 2.000 employees. The project will accelerate the ongoing development in the retail sector in Eskiþehir. Through social, cultural and entertaining activities, ECE Türkiye aims to position ESPARK Shopping Center as the meeting point of the region.
"Local, national and international retailers show a huge interest to the project. One of the main reasons of this interest is the perfect location and easy accessibility of ESPARK" said Mr. Hakan Biçen, head of leasing department of ECE Türkiye.
Source: ECE
