Hectares of treasury land with famous hotels transferred to new wealth fund

Many leading tourism investments and five-star hotels, located on 2.3 million square meters of land, have been transferred from Turkey's state treasury to the newly introduced Turkish Wealth Fund as well as a number of leading public companies and lenders. 

The lands acquired by the fund are located in the Mediterranean and Aegean resort provinces of Antalya, Aydın, İzmir and Muğla as well as the province of Isparta. 

Among the list are top hotels like Rixos in central Antalya, Simena-Sun in Antalya's Kemer, Double Tree by Hilton in Aydın's Kuşadası, Richmond Hotel in İzmir's Selçuk, and a large touristic land, owned by Turkish businessman Fikret Orman and his Greek partner Georgios Gyparak, in Muğla's Bodrum. A large plot in Istanbul, where a renowned restaurant is located, was also transferred to the wealth fund. 

Limak Holding Chair Nihat Özdemir, who has two hotels in the transferred lands, said they were ready to acquire them if the state said "yes." 

"These lands were allocated to us for a 49-year period. We pay rent for these lands. Nothing will change for us. Instead of paying our rents to the treasury, we will pay it to the fund. But, we are ready to buy these lands if the state wants us to," he said. 

Finance Minister Naci Ağbal, however, said the sale of these lands were out of question. 

"Their rents will be collected by the fund. Nothing has changed for the owners of the facilities on these lands," he said.