Shopping mall, houses to be built on stadium, sports hall land in Black Sea region

The municipality in the Black Sea province of Çorum has opened a tender for the construction of a shopping mall and 1,500 homes on a 55,000-square-meter area, where a stadium and sports halls are currently located.

The land where the construction will take place currently includes the Dr. Turhan K?l?çc?o?lu Stadium, a wrestling training center, a tennis court, an indoor sports facility, synthetic pitches and basketball hoops, as well as much green space.

The Çorum municipality, whose mayor was elected on the Justice and Development Party (AKP) ticket in local elections earlier this year, plans to build a new stadium on the same road where the current stadium is located, but it is not known whether new sports halls will accompany the stadium. 

The Ahlatç? Automotive and Construction company, the only company in the tender, secured the deal by offering 43 percent of sales revenue to the Çorum municipality. The municipality had previously stated that it would not accept any deal under 42 percent of the sales revenue. 

However, a member of the Çorum Municipal Council from the Republican People's Party (CHP), Mehmet Tahtas?z, said they were against turning the green space into a housing zone. 

"This place is an area where people have been doing sports for years. Now, 1,500 houses will be constructed there. This means that approximately 4,500 people will live there. If we think there will be around 4,500 vehicles, this means there will be a need for a parking lot of 30,000 square meters," Tahtas?z said. 

The land property of the area was transferred to the Çorum Municipality from the Sports General Directorate about one-and-a-half years ago.