Turner/Sword: Istanbul Financial Center is of strategic importance
Turner International Vice President and Turkey General Manager Mehmet Sami Kılıç said, “Turner is a North American company, it has both a contracting side and a project management side. It does the contracting side only in America and Canada and uses the know-how here in project management in other countries.”
Stating that they have carried out projects in more than 60 countries, Kılıç said, “We entered Turkey in 2000, but we gained momentum in the last 10 years. Our market share increased and we started to grow. We started with İş Towers and Atatürk Airport in Turkey. Currently, we are doing the program management of the Istanbul Finance Center and the project management of Şişecam’s large factories both in Turkey and in the USA. Our breaking point here was with Ziraat Bank towers.
We have other projects from the tourism sector to the data center. 16 of the 100 tallest buildings in the world are our project. We are currently working on the project of the tallest building in Turkey, which is 353 meters,” he said.
Kılıç said, “Istanbul Financial Center also has strategic importance. We got involved in the project in 2019. All ownership by a single firm under gathering. This is Türkiye Wealth Fund. Thus, decisions were made faster. We were also open in bureaucratic ways. In addition, we worked with Emlak Konut. We directed the project by blending our know-how in Dubai Financial Center. Banks section of the center was opened, other sections will be opened as the project is completed. We are very happy to be a part of this project.”
“Financing needs to be made easier so that the sector approaches the growth trend”
In his evaluation of the construction sector, Kılıç said, “The increase in labor, material and financing costs caused this market to shrink. Projects already underway have slowed down. It also caused the postponement of new projects to be started. The increase in the dollar rate and the volatile markets in Turkey caused the companies to fall into a difficult situation. Of course, these cost increases were felt more in Turkey than in the world. Some of these costs were reflected in the housing prices. The earthquake also affected a lot. There has been no growth since 2017 anyway. After the earthquake, our state went into a mobilization. I think that the private sector will also be involved in this business and will ensure the survival of the sector. Of course, financing should also be facilitated so that the sector approaches the growth trend”.
“Turkey is a very important market for our company,” said Kılıç, “We want to stay here permanently. As you know, there has been an electric vehicle investment in our country. The battery factories required for this are currently on the agenda. We also have a team that does this job and we want to bring it to Turkey. We will focus on value-added projects for the Turkish market. We have now started the data center project in Turkey,” he said.
