Prime Development, international shopping center developer and mall manager specializing in Turkey is celebrating its five-year anniversary. Formed by the German real estate managers Carsten Probst and Dr. Philipp von Wilmowsky in late 2007, the company is currently planning to open another shopping center and to commit new investments in the triple-digit million range in 2013.
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Seated in Istanbul, Prime Development have so far developed two shopping centers in Turkey, one being the Prime Mall Iskenderun and the other the Prime Mall Antakya, while also handling the ongoing center management. Opened in 2010 and 2011, respectively, the shopping centers already report weekend footfalls that are much above the average peer group in Anatolia.
"This success is attributable not least to our active centre management. In fact, we have become trendsetters for events and marketing drives in the respective regions. Also, we have attracted followers on new media such as Facebook in a number that are only remotely matched by power malls in Istanbul," said Carsten Probst, Managing Director and co-founder of Prime Development. "The deployment of sophisticated marketing measures is meant to integrate shoppers into the day-to-day event world of the prime malls in a pinpoint fashion that causes sales to skyrocket," Probst added.
The construction projects of Prime Development emphasize high-end planning, design and execution. "Our German investors have every right to expect high international quality standards from us, because it is the only way to achieve an optimal marketability of the properties," elaborates Dr. Philipp von Wilmowsky, Managing Director and co-founder of Prime Development. "We have pledged ourselves to an institutional-standard performance on every level. This approach covers everything from documented internal work-flows and licensing processes from the very first day of project planning, all the way to bespoke investor reporting that satisfies the highest standard."
A third shopping center, Prime Mall Gaziantep, is currently under construction and scheduled to open in 2013. The project in Gaziantep, another Turkish metropolis with a population of more than a million, was launched in April 2012. Having an investment volume of approximately 125 million, Prime Mall Gaziantep will be completed by the end of 2013. The mall with its 160 retail units will extend over four floors and a lettable area of around 55,000 m². Some of the most important strategic brands have been contracted, and the letting rate already exceeds 55%.
As with the previous projects, the development and management of Prime Mall Gaziantep is masterminded by the international team of Prime Development, which has grown to a size of 70 professionals. Team members have an average of 13 years of industry experience they gained on growth markets everywhere in Europe. In their combined professional careers, the specialists of Prime Development have assisted in the planning, project development, construction and management of nearly 70 shopping centres.
"We remain on a growth path. At the moment, we
