Turner Kicks Off Construction of Ziraat Bank HQ in Istanbul

By Barbra Murray

Ziraat Bank Headquarters, Istanbul

Tasked with bringing the Ziraat Bank Headquarters complex in Istanbul to life, Turner Construction Co. recently broke ground on the 4.6 million-square-foot project.

Istanbul is the center of Turner’s European operations and as Mehmet Genc, project director with Turner Construction Co., said in a prepared statement, “Ziraat Bank Headquarters is another important win for our regional operations.”

Ziraat Bank Headquarters is being erected in a prominent position within the Istanbul International Financial Center, an approximately $2.6 billion, 45 million-square-foot business district under development by the Turkish Government. Ziraat’s new home base, designed by architectural firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, will feature a 46-story tower and a 40-story tower linked by an eight-story commercial and retail podium.

Been there, built that

Turner expects to complete construction of the Ziraat Bank Headquarters campus in 2021. “The project’s architectural requirements make the 36-month construction schedule particularly demanding, but Turner’s global expertise on similar projects will guide the project team’s collaborative execution,” Genc said.

Turner’s experience with building gargantuan single-tenant corporate campuses can be seen right in the same city, where the company served as general contractor on the development of Türkiye Is Bankasi’s three-building, 2.5 million-square-foot headquarters in 2000. In the U.S., the construction services company’s long list of headquarters projects includes Vertex Pharmaceutical’s 1.1 million-square-foot global headquarters complex in Boston. 

Image courtesy of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates