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RHEA COMES TO TURKEY WITH INTERNATIONAL CORPORATE INVESTORS
Operating in Turkey since 2006, the investment and project development company RHEA is helping to change the minds of international corporate investors that did not find Turkey attractive under the circumstances of the global crisis. Working on a MediaMarkt project with a German investor in Izmir, RHEA is kicking off a city hotels project with a European operator/investor.
Operating as a private investment and project development company in the fields of real estate, health, energy, agriculture, and financial services, London-based RHEA is signing its name under great projects to lure foreign investors to Turkey.
Having commenced its operations in Turkey in 2006, the International Assets Management Platform RHEA is currently engaged in a 10,000-square-meter construction project for MediaMarkt launched in Izmir in March 2009 with the investment partnership of the German investor Union Investment. Noting that the international investors are watching them attentively for this investment they undertook at a time when Turkey was considered unattractive because of the global crisis, RHEA Chairperson Onur Takmak says the company will focus its efforts in real estate on retail parks, prime office space, business and city hotels, and logistics parks.
City hotels, main street retailing...
Explaining that they entered into a development partnership with one of Europe’s largest operators investing in the property market in Turkey for the city hotels, Takmak said they were developing business and city hotel projects in pedestrian hubs such as the districts of Taksim, Esentepe, Sultanahmet, Kadıköy in Istanbul and others in Izmir and Ankara. RHEA will conduct these projects by buying vacant lots or renovating existing property.
Another goal of RHEA’s is to become one of the leading developers in the logistics industry. Engaged also in purchasing the existing assets of corporate logistics operators and re-leasing them, Rhea targets developing 40,000 square meters of logistic warehouse space in Hadımköy and 30,000 square meters in Gebze this year.
Main street retailing is another area where RHEA operates in the broader realm of real estate. Conducting developments compatible with the property rental strategies of the major retail chains in Istanbul’s key locations such as the Bağdat Avenue, the Istiklal Avenue, and the Nişantaşı district, RHEA is about to kick off a development project each on Bağdat Avenue and Istiklal Avenue.
120 million dollars’ worth of investment in health industry a no-go
Another area of interest for RHEA is the health industry. Earmarking 120 million dollars for an investment in a hospital chain project that had been launched with five general hospitals in Izmir, Manisa and Denizli in Turkey’s Aegean region in 2007, RHEA had to go on standby when permissions for new investments in the health industry were frozen last year. The “Daylight Hospitals” project incorporated buildings admitting plenty of daylight planned with an approach far removed from today’s conventional hospital concept; however, it had to be aborted due to the quotas introduced by the Ministry of Health. Actively exploring opportunities for purchase and investment in the field of health, RHEA will pick up its investments from where it left off when the market conditions are right.
Foreign partners available in energy
Yet another main area of investment of RHEA’s is energy. The company plans to invest in every sector of this industry in the near future. The first investments will be made with foreign partners in renewable energy – small-scale hydro, wind, and geothermal energy projects – in the zones of geothermal energy in the Aegean region.
In agriculture, another RHEA area of interest, the company is conducting negotiations with Dutch technology providers in preparation for one of Turkey’s largest projects in technological greenhouses powered with geothermal energy. The first steps have been taken for a €70-million integrated agricultural plant with a size of up to 1,000 decares to be built in a parallel effort in the Aegean geothermal zones where development activities are under way for an ongoing investment.
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