Sanko Park is an enclosed shopping mall

Shopping mall

A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...

 located in Gaziantep

Gaziantep

Gaziantep , Ottoman Turkish: Ayintab) previously and still informally called Antep; ʻayn tāb is a city in southeast Turkey and amongst the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. The city is located 185 kilometres northeast of Adana and 127 kilometres by road north of Aleppo, Syria...

, Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

. The first enclosed mall in the region, construction of the US$160 million project began in 2007,SANKO Holding'den Alışveriş Merkezi, Haber27, November 14, 2008 and the center opened in the spring of 2009.

Because of its location in southeastern Turkey, it draws a significant number of shoppers from nearby Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

. The mall is approximately a two hour drive from Aleppo

Aleppo

Aleppo is the largest city in Syria and the capital of Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. With an official population of 2,301,570 , expanding to over 2.5 million in the metropolitan area, it is also one of the largest cities in the Levant...

, the largest city in northern Syria. With the elimination of visa requirements for travel between Turkey and Syria in September 2009, the center saw the number of Syrian shoppers rise from approximately 3,000 per month to 50,000 by early 2010.

The four story structure has about 55,000 square meters of leasable space. Anchor tenants include a Carrefour

Carrefour

Carrefour S.A. is an international hypermarket chain headquartered in Levallois-Perret, France. It is one of the largest hypermarket chains in the world...

 hypermarket

Hypermarket

In commerce, a hypermarket is a superstore combining a supermarket and a department store. The result is an expansive retail facility carrying a wide range of products under one roof, including full groceries lines and general merchandise...

 and Marks & Spencer

Marks & Spencer

Marks and Spencer plc is a British retailer headquartered in the City of Westminster, London, with over 700 stores in the United Kingdom and over 300 stores spread across more than 40 countries. It specialises in the selling of clothing and luxury food products...

, and the first floor features an ice rink.

The center was developed by Rönesans Gayrimenkul (Renaissance Construction), a real estate concern that has developed a number of centers in the country.

External links

• sankopark.com
• Photo gallery of mall published in Hürriyet
  Hürriyet
  -External links:* * ** * *...