Plot of oldest brewer to host hotel

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet

Bomonti Int’l may acquire a hotel in London, says Chairman Çeçen.

The Istanbul site of Turkey’s first beer factory is becoming a hotel and convention center with a 250 million-euro investment. The hotel building will have 35 floors and 829 rooms, which will make it the largest of its kind in Istanbul, the company said.

IC Investment Holding won a tender to sell the now idle Bomonti Beer Factory and its large plot of land held by the Culture and Tourism Ministry in 2007 for 60.2 million Turkish Liras.

Scheduled to open in seven months

The inauguration of the center, which will be operated by Hilton Worldwide, is planned to take place in May. The 120-year-old beer factory will be restored to function as a culture, arts and entertainment center. The hotel, which is three kilometers from Taksim Square, features 6,300 square meters of meeting rooms.

The project is being developed on 166,015 square meters of land. The factory covers 12,715 square meters. The hotel and convention center are being built on the remaining 153,300 square meters.
The company also wants to invest in European countries like Britain and Russia. “We want to acquire an existing hotel [there]. We are continuing to search for one. We are also looking at St. Petersburg,” said Serhat Çeçen, the chairman of Bomonti International Congress and Tourism Investment, a subsidiary of IC.