Bulgarian foundation given construction rights on returned plot in Istanbul

ISTANBUL

A 59,000-square meter area in Istanbul’s Şişli district, which has been returned to the foundation of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, will be used for the construction of business places, according to daily Vatan.
 
The Bulgarian Orthodox Church foundation applied to the General Directorate of Foundations for the return of its property where a Bahçeşehir University department and the Şişli Technical Vocational School are currently located.

The directorate decided to return the property to the foundation in September 2012, but the Environment and Urban Planning Ministry has now issued new construction plans for the 59,000-square meter area. 

The property, which was planned to be an education area in the old plan, is now foreseen as an area on which business places and residential areas will be built. The new construction plan would take up a 180,000-square meter area in total, including all the land of the foundation. 

Vasil Liaze, the head of the foundation, said they themselves had an agreement with a company for the property, and that the new construction plan represented a “lottery” for their foundation.