With a gigantic project, the Rixos Group are opening up a completely new district for the residents of Istanbul and the city’s guests. The special thing about it: It has a great history and is located in the middle of the city center.
Tersane Istanbul is the historic dockyard district of Istanbul and stretches for two kilometers along the Golden Horn, a branch of the Bosphorus. Here the Ottoman ships were serviced and the Sultan’s sailors built – Tersane was the heart of the Ottoman fleet and Istanbul’s cosmopolitan hotspot.
Comeback is already in full swing
The 600-year-old district, which has been neglected and run-down for decades, is to become exactly this hotspot again. The comeback is already in full swing: A large part of the old port facilities and shipyards is in the middle of being renovated, and part of the project is due to be completed as early as next year.
Five hotels and two marinas, a promenade, offices, 270 shops, 660 apartments and several event locations are planned.
Hosting guests under vaulted wooden ceilings carried by exposed industrial steel structures in the old Torpedo Factory at the shipyard, the Event Hall has already started to host various exclusive gatherings (concerts, fashion shows, product launches, congresses, meetings) with its loft-type atmosphere.
The Event Hall has space for 1.500 sitting guests. Standing there ist room for approximately 2.700 participants.
Historic buildings in a new style
The architecture of the project is an ambitious mix of historic industrial buildings and ultra-modern steel and glass design.
“It’s a huge and very impressive project,” Bentour boss Deniz Ugur is already looking forward to the opening of the first hotel next year. The entire district is to be opened to the public as early as 2024.
Rixos itself will only operate one of the hotels; a luxury hotel with approximately 1.100 beds and a large wellness area is planned. A boutique hotel within historic walls and a health resort are also planned.
Each of the houses should have its “own character and thus appeal to the different tastes of the guests”, says project’s chief architects, and adds: “The people of Istanbul will discover a part of their city that they have never seen before to have.”
New site is close to famous Galata Bridge
The location is perfect for hotel guests. It is barely three kilometers to the well-known New Galata Bridge, which, among other things, takes cruise guests to the Grand Bazaar and Hagia Sophia. The bridge alone is a sight: on the lower level there are restaurants after restaurants, above the anglers stand and hope for a good catch.
On one side of the bridge stretches the former Genoese district of Karaköy with its narrow streets and high, fortified houses and the famous Galata Tower. On the other side are the Grand Bazaar, Hagia Sophia and Topkapi Palace – all around four kilometers from Tersane.
According to architects of the project, the Tersane project has what it takes to become Istanbul’s new downtown. Rixos would certainly not mind.
