Three ventures have been selected for negotiations on the construction of a world trade centre on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis near Istanbul's Ataturk international airport, according to industry sources. Client is a venture called Istanbul Dunya Ticaret Merkezi (Istanbul World Trade Centre Corporation).

The three are the local Yasar Holding, the UK's John Laing International and the US' Overseas Partners. Industry sources say the local and UK company may submit a joint offer when detailed bids fall due in around four months' time. The client is a venture formed by Istanbul municipality, the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, and the Turkish Union of Chambers of Commerce & Industry.

The project calls for the construction on the 503,000-square-metre-site of two four-star hotels with 150 rooms each, and one five-star hotel with around 1,000 rooms. The scheme also includes a business and conference centre to be built on an area of 110,000 square metres.

The scheme originally was attached to a project for the construction of a new international passenger lines terminal at Ataturk international airport. Separate BOT bids for the terminal were returned from seven consortia recently (MEED 15:12:95).