Someone Built A $200 Million Village Of Disney-Like Castles, Realizes His Mistake When It’s Too Late
Hundreds of Disney catsle-like faux chateaux being built for wealthy Gulf investors have just got their new residents. Ghosts. The Burj Al Babas residential area project in Turkey’s northern Bolu province began in 2014, but its developer, the Sarot Group, has failed to come up with the required amount of money for finishing the medieval castles.
Image credits: Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images
Image credits: Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images
The Sarot Group was recently slapped with a court-ordered bankruptcy ruling over the Burj Al Babas’ $27 million debt. The suburb project was designed to include 732 chateau-style villas, swimming pools, Turkish baths, health and beauty centers, a shopping center and a mosque, according to its website. And even though customers from Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia have bought around 350 of the 587 kitsch villas built, it’s not enough.
Image credits: Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images
Image credits: AFP
“We couldn’t get about 7.5 million dollars receivables for the villas we have sold to Gulf countries,” Hurriyet newspaper quoted Sarot Group Chairman Mehmet Emin Yerdelen. “We applied for bankruptcy protection but the court ruled for bankruptcy. We will appeal the ruling.”
Image credits: Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images
Image credits: Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images
Image credits: Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images
Image credits: Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images
The court also ordered the group to stop all construction immediately leaving a site full of abandoned houses, but Yerdelen remains hopeful. “The project is valued at $200 million,” he said. “We only need to sell 100 villas to pay off our debt. I believe we can get over this crisis in four to five months and partially inaugurate the project in 2019.”
More info: burjalbabas.com
Image credits: Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images
People had a lot to say about this project and its fate
The houses aren't bad in themselves, but the layout of the entire thing is terrible and would cause so many unnecessary problems. No. Just no.
This reminds me of The Palm in UAE and other artificial islands close by. The developers from Dubai couldn’t sell the villas on this artificial islands as expected and had to lower the prices because the villas were not attractive to rich buyers. They were to close together and looked the same. Wealthy people prefer distance to their neighbors and some individuality.
Who in their right mind would think that a person with the funds to purchase such a fancy house would spend them on this overcrowded monstrosity? No one likes to be this close to their neighbors and people with means aren't going to buy a house that has a thousand identical clones sitting right next to it, with no space between them. What about yards, gardens, parks? This is incredibly poor design made by someone who possesses more greed than common sense. It's sad they destroyed so much land for this crap.
It would be perfect for an army of clones, though.
Maybe they had hopes of a large influx of Chinese buyers. Or people from Singapore. Anyplace where there's so much less room, even these would seem roomy and reasonably spaced.
turkish or middle eastern people of course.
arabs.
Don't come home drunk!
Best comment so far.
or at all!
Yup sir mr. taxi ... *hic* ....I just live in the white castle up ahead.....oh crap.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Not a huge risk in Turkey.
Unless they've changed the laws from the last time i've been there it is legal to sell and consume alcohol outside of a 500m radius from the nearest mosque.
Could have been 100 meters, it was years ago and i was more interested in the local food back then
@Giovanni not sure this applies to Istanbul though, the city center is packed with mosques, and still many restaurants and bars serve alcohol.
100 meters, but not only mosques but also educational buildings.
The houses aren't bad in themselves, but the layout of the entire thing is terrible and would cause so many unnecessary problems. No. Just no.
This reminds me of The Palm in UAE and other artificial islands close by. The developers from Dubai couldn’t sell the villas on this artificial islands as expected and had to lower the prices because the villas were not attractive to rich buyers. They were to close together and looked the same. Wealthy people prefer distance to their neighbors and some individuality.
Who in their right mind would think that a person with the funds to purchase such a fancy house would spend them on this overcrowded monstrosity? No one likes to be this close to their neighbors and people with means aren't going to buy a house that has a thousand identical clones sitting right next to it, with no space between them. What about yards, gardens, parks? This is incredibly poor design made by someone who possesses more greed than common sense. It's sad they destroyed so much land for this crap.
It would be perfect for an army of clones, though.
Maybe they had hopes of a large influx of Chinese buyers. Or people from Singapore. Anyplace where there's so much less room, even these would seem roomy and reasonably spaced.
turkish or middle eastern people of course.
arabs.
Don't come home drunk!
Best comment so far.
or at all!
Yup sir mr. taxi ... *hic* ....I just live in the white castle up ahead.....oh crap.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Not a huge risk in Turkey.
Unless they've changed the laws from the last time i've been there it is legal to sell and consume alcohol outside of a 500m radius from the nearest mosque.
Could have been 100 meters, it was years ago and i was more interested in the local food back then
@Giovanni not sure this applies to Istanbul though, the city center is packed with mosques, and still many restaurants and bars serve alcohol.
100 meters, but not only mosques but also educational buildings.