Kentpark

Kentpark opened February 12, 2010 on Eskişehir Yolu in Ankara’s Çankaya district, built as a mixed retail-and-office complex: 242,000 sqm of total enclosed space, of which 80,000 sqm is leasable retail and 11,000 sqm is office space above it. The developers pitched it as “the center of centers” for a city with, in their own framing, more shopping malls than genuine variety among them.

Kentpark was the first and, for years, the only mall in central Ankara to offer tax-free cash refunds on-site, letting foreign shoppers collect their VAT refund directly at a dedicated counter rather than waiting until the airport. Boyner and MediaMarkt anchor the department-store and electronics floors, with Zara, Massimo Dutti and Stradivarius carrying the fashion register alongside Decathlon for sports.

A 2,000 sqm lake with a nightly water-and-light show, a 6,000 sqm fitness center and 28,000 sqm of landscaping give the property a leisure footprint unusually large for an Ankara mall, alongside a dedicated dance academy and a bowling alley. The center draws roughly 8 million visitors a year from an affluent catchment: Çankaya’s household incomes run well above the Turkish national average.

That positioning puts Kentpark in direct competition with Cepa AVM, a similarly upscale center nearby, and Ankamall, which draws higher footfall but a broader, less affluent demographic. Sixteen years after opening, Kentpark has held its niche as Ankara’s premium-tier mall rather than chasing the volume Ankamall commands.