The Mall of Antalya opened its doors on April 28, 2017, marking a major investment in both the commercial and civic fabric of Turkey’s southern coast. Located in Antalya’s fast-expanding Kepez district, the project brought together a group of top Turkish firms. Development was led by Torunlar GYO, a real estate company with a sizable national footprint, signaling the long-term weight behind the build.

Architecture was handled by DNA Mimarlık, who were tasked with delivering something that felt both modern in function and relevant to its surroundings. Structural engineering was done by Yapı Teknik, with 3T Mühendislik in charge of mechanical systems and HB Teknik overseeing electrical. BDS Consulting handled the façade and acoustic performance—key technical elements that included the design of the theater and cinema spaces inside the complex.

The Mall of Antalya was designed around a clear architectural idea: modern, open, and built for comfort. That thinking shows up right away in its layout. Instead of stacking shops vertically like most urban malls, it spreads across two wide floors. Inside, the corridors are broad and free of clutter, with clean, modern finishes that make the space easy to navigate. The goal wasn’t just to look good—it was to keep people moving comfortably between shops, restaurants, and entertainment without feeling boxed in. The result is a place meant to be used for hours, not minutes.

A Statement in Glass and Ceramic: The Architecture of a Mediterranean Landmark

The Façade: A Deliberate Echo and Functional Form

The most distinctive feature of the Mall of Antalya is its main entrance façade—a massive glass curtain wall tilted back at a sharp 75-degree angle. It’s built from a mosaic of colored triangular panels, each treated with a high-selectivity coating that lets in natural light while keeping heat out—an essential detail given the region’s climate. The effect is both technical and visual. The colored glass echoes stained-glass windows, pulling in a quiet reference to tradition without breaking from the mall’s modern identity. Overhead, the sloped glazing adds to the sense of scale, flooding the entrance hall with daylight and giving the space the feel of a bright, open public hall rather than a standard retail lobby.

The building’s exterior carries the same angular language as the entrance, with walls sloped at 75 degrees and finished in slim ceramic panels set in an open-jointed system. That design wasn’t just for looks—it posed a real technical challenge. Engineers had to make sure the incline would handle water runoff efficiently and seal tight against leaks, all while keeping the visual rhythm aligned with the mall’s more vertical sections.

The façade design does more than define the building’s look—it carries a deliberate strategic message. It closely mirrors the entrance of the Mall of Istanbul, another Torunlar GYO project and one of the company’s biggest commercial successes. That earlier mall had already earned major recognition, including being named “Best European Shopping Center” by the ICSC. Repeating that design here wasn’t just a stylistic choice—it was a calculated signal. By drawing a clear visual line between the two properties, Torunlar effectively imported the reputation of its Istanbul flagship into its Antalya venture. The resemblance acts as a kind of shorthand: same developer, same scale, same level of ambition. For both tenants and visitors, it sets expectations without saying a word.

Interior Architecture and Specialized Engineering

The Mall of Antalya occupies a sizeable footprint, with a total built area of approximately 136,628 square meters on a land parcel of 84,503 square meters. While figures vary slightly, the most commonly cited total area is 131,000 square meters. The space has been planned to accommodate both commercial operations and broader community use.

The project also included a number of technically specialized components. Acoustic design was a priority in the entertainment wing, with BDS Consulting brought on to handle sound engineering for both the 212-seat theater and the 11-screen cinema complex. This level of investment suggests the developers intended these venues to function as serious cultural offerings, rather than just supplemental features within a retail setting.

The integration of religious space followed a similarly thoughtful approach. A 500-square-meter prayer room, completed in 2017, was designed with the building’s natural orientation—coincidentally aligned with the qibla direction—in mind. It’s a detail that may go unnoticed by many, but it reflects an effort to embed practical, culturally responsive elements into the overall architecture, making the mall accessible and functional for a broad local and international audience.

The Commercial Ecosystem: A Curated Mix of Retail and Gastronomy

At the heart of the Mall of Antalya is a deliberately built mix of retail and dining that goes well beyond just filling units. The goal wasn’t volume—it was balance. The lineup is designed to pull in a wide range of shoppers while still offering enough exclusivity to feel distinct. It’s a mix that covers the basics but also introduces just enough newness to keep the experience from feeling routine.

Retail Composition and Anchor Tenants

What sets the Mall of Antalya apart isn’t just its size—it’s how that size is used. On its own, the mall houses 144 stores. But when combined with the adjoining Deepo Outlet Center, the entire complex grows to 234 stores spread across 71,000 square meters of leasable space. That makes it the largest retail and entertainment hub anywhere along the Mediterranean coast.

At the core of its strategy is a focus on dominant anchor tenants. The mall secured the largest H&M, LC Waikiki, and DeFacto stores in Antalya. These brands already pull massive traffic on their own, so giving them their biggest local footprints gave the mall instant weight. If you want the full selection from any of those chains, this is where you go.

But the approach doesn’t stop at scale. The mall also introduced brands that had never been in the city before. Under Armour chose this location for its regional debut. SPX Mega Store, focused on outdoor and performance gear, did the same. Adore Toy opened its first Antalya store here too, bringing a new concept focused on educational toys. Each one speaks to a specific type of shopper—athletes, outdoor enthusiasts, families looking for more thoughtful play options—and each adds a layer that isn’t easily found elsewhere in the market.

Together, these choices form a two-part strategy: lock in steady foot traffic with major anchors, and layer on novelty through brand debuts. One creates scale, the other creates edge. That balance makes the mall relevant to a wide range of customers—from locals doing everyday shopping to international tourists looking for familiar names and something new. It’s not just a lineup of stores. It’s a curated commercial system built to keep people coming back—and to give them more than one reason to.

Gastronomy: The Food Court as a Central Hub

The food and beverage section of the Mall of Antalya isn’t just an amenity—it’s a key part of the experience. Spanning 4,000 square meters, the food court is designed as a central social space, echoing the mall’s overall layout with wide walkways, modern finishes, and a mix of open-plan and two-story areas that give it a sense of scale and openness.

The lineup of vendors is broad by design. International chains like McDonald’s, Burger King, Popeyes, Sbarro, Subway, and Arby’s cover familiar territory for global visitors. At the same time, the mall leans into local demand with well-known Turkish names like Bay Döner, Usta Dönerci, and Pide Durağı. Coffee options are equally balanced—Starbucks and Caribou Coffee sit alongside regional staples, offering both quick-service convenience and sit-down café options.

The result is a setup that works for nearly any kind of visitor: solo shoppers grabbing a quick meal, families needing variety, or groups meeting up over coffee. It’s not just about food—it’s about giving people a reason to pause and stay longer.

Representative Store Directory by Category

To show how broad and deliberately structured the mall’s retail mix is, the table below breaks down a sample of stores from the combined Mall of Antalya and Deepo Outlet Center, grouped by core product category. It’s a cross-section that reflects the balance between everyday essentials, specialty retail, and premium options—all under one roof.

Food, Beverage, and Restaurant Directory

The table below organizes the mall’s food and beverage offerings by type, showing how international chains and local favorites are positioned side by side. The mix is designed to meet a wide range of tastes—whether it’s a quick fast-food stop, a full meal, or a casual coffee break.

The Regional Entertainment Anchor: Cinema, Play, and Performance

The Mall of Antalya was built to be more than a place to shop. From the outset, it was designed as a major entertainment hub for the Mediterranean region—one that could attract visitors even without the pull of retail. The scale and quality of its entertainment venues reflect that intent. These aren’t add-ons—they’re core infrastructure, built to anchor the mall as a full-scale “living center” where shopping, leisure, and culture all operate under the same roof.

Cinetech: The Mediterranean’s Largest Cinema Complex

At the center of the mall’s entertainment lineup is the Cinetech cinema complex—an 11-screen, 2,200-seat setup that stands as the largest of its kind in the region. Its scale allows for a wide-ranging schedule that covers everything from major international releases to local Turkish titles, serving a broad mix of residents and tourists.

What sets it apart, though, is the technology. The flagship “Ultimate Hall” was developed in partnership with BARCO, a global leader in projection systems. It features one of the largest cinema screens in Turkey—14 meters high—paired with a 4K projector capable of 68,000 lumens. The image quality is sharp, bright, and massive. All 11 screens also run Dolby Atmos, with surround and overhead speakers creating a full 3D sound environment that puts the audience directly into the scene.

The focus on experience carries through to the seating. Over 1,100 of the seats are SEGASit’s DOLCE models, chosen for comfort and modern design—built to hold up through long films without distraction. Whether it’s the visuals, the sound, or just the seat you’re in, the cinema was clearly designed to deliver more than the basics.

OPS Play Kids: A Destination for Families

The Mall of Antalya also houses the city’s largest indoor playground—a 1,600-square-meter space operating under the “OPS Play Kids” concept. It’s more than just a place for kids to burn off energy. With activities tailored to different age groups and a supervised setup, it functions as both an attraction and a piece of commercial strategy.

The logic is simple: give families a safe, engaging environment for their children, and parents will stay longer. The developer puts it plainly—the playground is there to let adults shop while their kids are entertained. That changes the equation for family visits. Instead of being limited by a child’s attention span, parents can take their time, move through the mall freely, and treat the visit as a full outing rather than a quick stop. The result is higher dwell time, more revenue per visit, and a better overall experience for families—all of which reinforces the mall’s broader push to function as a full-scale “living center.”

MOA Sahne and Gösteri Merkezi: Cultural Programming

The Mall of Antalya’s focus on culture shows up clearly in its dedicated performance spaces. There’s a 212-seat theatre for plays, concerts, and small-format shows, alongside a larger, more flexible venue known as MOA Sahne—or MOA Gösteri Merkezi—that hosts a broader range of live events.

Programming spans everything from children’s musicals and touring theater productions to stand-up comedy and art exhibitions. The aim is clear: make the mall more than just a place to shop. By bringing performance, visual art, and live entertainment into the same space as retail and dining, the mall positions itself as a modern public square—a space where culture and everyday life intersect. It’s not just about filling time between stores. It’s about creating a reason to return, even if you’re not buying anything.

MOA Sahne & Gösteri Merkezi: Representative Event Schedule

The table below offers a snapshot of events held at the Mall of Antalya’s performance venues, highlighting the range of programming—from children’s shows and theater to stand-up comedy and art exhibitions—that supports its role as a cultural hub as much as a commercial one.

A Strategic Duality: The Nexus with Deepo Outlet Center

One of the Mall of Antalya’s most distinctive advantages is its seamless connection to the Deepo Outlet Center. The two operate as a single, integrated complex—blending full-price retail with outlet shopping in one continuous space. It’s a setup that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the region at this scale. That dual structure gives the mall a wider reach, appealing to both value-driven shoppers and those looking for the latest collections. It’s also central to its market strength: the integration expands foot traffic, extends dwell time, and strengthens its position as the area’s dominant retail destination.

The Pre-Existing Asset: Deepo Outlet Center

Well before the Mall of Antalya was built, the Deepo Outlet Center had already secured its place in the region’s retail landscape. Opened in 2004, it was the largest outlet center on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast and had a clear formula: offer discounted end-of-season and surplus stock from major national and international brands. It worked—and it pulled consistently high traffic.

Deepo’s location was a big part of that success. Sitting directly across from Antalya Airport and at the intersection of highways leading to key tourist areas like Alanya, Side, and Manavgat, it was positioned to catch both outbound travelers and vacationers heading in or out of the city. It even included airport-linked features like flight departure boards and airline check-in desks to make the stopover seamless for travelers looking to squeeze in one last round of shopping.

At its peak, Deepo was drawing close to 5 million visitors a year. About a quarter were foreign tourists, another third domestic visitors, and the rest local. The appeal was consistent: familiar brands, deep discounts, and a chance to score a deal. It was designed for value-focused shoppers—and it delivered.

The Integration: A Symbiotic Relationship

Instead of choosing a separate site, Torunlar GYO built the Mall of Antalya right next to the already successful Deepo Outlet—and connected the two with five enclosed corridors. The result is seamless. Most visitors treat them as one massive complex, and that’s exactly how it’s marketed: a single destination with two distinct retail experiences.

What makes the setup work is the balance. The Mall of Antalya handles full-price, in-season collections in large-format flagship stores. Deepo delivers discounted, off-season stock from the same big-name brands. They don’t compete—they complement. Between the two, nearly every kind of shopper is covered, whether they’re after the latest release or a solid deal.

This isn’t accidental—it’s a textbook barbell strategy. Instead of fighting for the overserved middle, the complex targets both ends of the market: premium and value. A family could split up, with one person shopping new collections at Vakko or Zara, another browsing the Adidas or Tommy Hilfiger outlets next door. They meet back at the shared food court or catch a film. It’s flexible, efficient, and appeals to groups with mixed budgets and shopping goals.

That pairing gives the complex a clear edge. Other malls in Antalya—like MarkAntalya or TerraCity—offer strong full-price retail, but none can match the dual-format scale Deepo brings. It turns the combined property into a regional draw, pulling visitors from further out and keeping them around longer. Entertainment and dining link the two sides, encouraging crossover traffic and lifting overall spend across the board. It’s not just co-location—it’s a retail model designed to hold attention and capture more value per visit.

The Developer’s Vision: Torunlar GYO and the Making of a Super-Regional Mall

The Mall of Antalya wasn’t built as a one-off—it was a calculated move by Torunlar GYO, one of Turkey’s major real estate developers. Everything about the mall—from its size and layout to its position in the market—directly reflects Torunlar’s experience in the industry and its bigger-picture approach to development.

Torunlar GYO: A Profile of a Leading Developer

Torunlar Gayrimenkul Yatırım Ortaklığı (GYO) is one of Turkey’s biggest private real estate investment companies—and the country’s top investor in shopping malls. With more than forty years in construction, Torunlar’s portfolio includes some of Turkey’s most recognizable projects: the Mall of Istanbul, Torun Center in Istanbul, Korupark in Bursa, and others across retail, residential, office, and hotel sectors.

Their development model is summed up in the motto “Worth to invest, worth to live.” In practice, that means building integrated, mixed-use environments—what they call “living centers”—that do more than just house shops. The Mall of Antalya is a clear example of this philosophy in action: retail, large-scale entertainment, varied dining, and cultural spaces all under one roof, designed to serve as a true community hub.

Project Timeline and Investment

Building the Mall of Antalya was a multi-year process. Design and planning kicked off in 2014, with construction getting underway in 2015—some reports say early 2016 for the main build. After about two years of work, the mall opened to the public on April 28, 2017. The total investment came in at $100 million, reflecting both the size of the project and the standards set for its design and facilities.

Official Recognition and Performance

Since opening, the combined Mall of Antalya and Deepo Outlet Center has earned steady praise from visitors and has picked up multiple industry awards along the way. The complex received the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence in 2019, 2020, 2021, and again in 2023—a recognition based on consistently strong visitor reviews and high marks for service, facilities, and overall experience.

Adding the Mall of Antalya to Torunlar GYO’s portfolio marked a major step up in scale. It became the company’s 11th shopping mall, pushing their total leasable area nationwide to about 600,000 square meters. With this expansion, Torunlar set its annual visitor target across all properties at 60 million, making clear how much weight they placed on the new Antalya project.

Mall of Antalya & Deepo Outlet Center: Key Project Statistics

The table below brings together the key figures for the Mall of Antalya and Deepo Outlet Center, giving a clear, quick overview of the combined project’s scale and main features.

An Engine of Growth: Economic Integration and Urban Impact in Kepez

The Mall of Antalya isn’t just another shopping center—it’s a major economic driver and a catalyst for change in its part of the city. Its size and location have directly influenced the local economy, boosted real estate values, and reshaped the job market in Kepez and the wider Antalya area.

Strategic Location: The Kepez District

The mall’s location wasn’t left to chance. It sits in the Altınova Sinan neighborhood of Kepez—one of Antalya’s largest and fastest-growing suburbs, just north of the city center. That means it’s anchored within a dense and expanding residential area.

Just as important, the complex is right across from Antalya Airport, the main international entry point for the region’s huge tourist flow. This puts the mall in prime position to catch both local shoppers and the steady stream of travelers moving through the city. Getting there is straightforward—major roads lead directly to the site, and the AntRay tram line, which links the city center to the airport, stops right at the mall. Public transport and car access are both baked in, making it easy to reach for nearly anyone in Antalya.

The Catalyst for Urban Transformation

The timing of the Mall of Antalya’s development lined up with major changes in Kepez itself. Once known for its patchwork of informal housing, Kepez became the focus of one of Turkey’s largest urban renewal efforts, the so-called “New Kepez” project. The plan was straightforward: replace outdated neighborhoods with new infrastructure, modern public spaces, and high-quality apartment complexes, ultimately supporting tens of thousands of new residents.

Big retail was a core piece of that strategy. The Mall of Antalya, together with Deepo Outlet, Agora Shopping Center, and Ikea, now forms a commercial hub at the heart of the district. This cluster of modern shopping and entertainment centers has played a major role in upgrading Kepez’s image and making it more attractive for both homebuyers and investors.

You can see the effect in property data. From the time the mall was being built (2015–2017) to early 2022, the average price per square meter for homes in Antalya jumped from 1,757 TRY to 5,748 TRY. There are plenty of factors behind that growth, but having a major shopping and leisure anchor like the Mall of Antalya adds clear value and drives up demand for real estate in the surrounding area.

Contribution to the Regional Economy and Employment

The mall plays a big role in Antalya’s tourism-driven economy. The city routinely ranks among the world’s top travel destinations, bringing in between 12.4 and 15 million international visitors each year before the pandemic. For many of these travelers, shopping is a major part of the trip—especially in modern malls with air conditioning and global brands. The Mall of Antalya directly targets this market, drawing thousands of tourists and securing a large share of their spending.

Employment is another area where the impact is clear. While there’s no standalone figure for the Mall of Antalya, Torunlar GYO’s eleven malls together account for around 12,000 jobs nationwide. Given its size—over 200 stores, a major cinema, a big food court, and plenty of service providers—this complex is responsible for a sizeable slice of that, likely supporting several thousand jobs directly. Data from İŞKUR (the Turkish Employment Agency) backs this up, showing that wholesale and retail trade is one of the biggest employers in Antalya. The opening of the mall added a significant number of new positions locally, not just in retail, but also in logistics, security, facilities, and supply chain.

The mall’s importance isn’t limited to tourism. By serving both the seasonal influx of international visitors and the permanent, growing population of Kepez, it helps smooth out the peaks and valleys in local retail. Antalya’s economy has always swung with the tourist seasons, but the Mall of Antalya, with its steady local customer base and its draw for tourists, gives tenants a more stable year-round footing. That resilience is central to the city’s wider aim of becoming a destination that works for twelve months—not just in the high season.

The Modern Agora: Social Function and the Antalya Retail Landscape

In today’s world, shopping malls have moved well beyond just places to buy things. In Turkey, like elsewhere, they’ve become multi-purpose “living centers”—climate-controlled, safe, and easy-to-access spaces that play an important social role. The Mall of Antalya fits this model perfectly. It acts as a modern agora, a hub where people come together, blending seamlessly into Antalya’s varied and vibrant retail scene.

The Mall as a Social and Cultural Center

The Mall of Antalya isn’t just seen by its management—or its visitors—as a place to shop. It’s widely described as a “cultural and social center” that hosts a range of events, activities, and exhibitions year-round. That reputation comes from its broad mix of non-retail offerings: the largest cinema complex in the region, Antalya’s biggest indoor playground, a dedicated performance stage, and a large, varied food court. Together, these facilities make the mall a go-to spot for leisure and socializing. Families, young people, and groups of friends come here to hang out, dine, and be entertained—even when they’re not there to buy anything. In that way, it acts like a modern town square for Kepez’s suburban community.

Coexistence with Traditional Retail: Malls vs. Bazaars

Antalya’s retail scene sits at the intersection of new and old. On one end, you have expansive shopping centers like the Mall of Antalya, MarkAntalya, and TerraCity. On the other, there’s a network of traditional markets: the historic Kaleiçi bazaar and the rotating weekly pazars that serve local neighborhoods.

The growth of malls across Turkey has clearly changed how people shop and socialize, pulling much of that activity away from open-air markets into air-conditioned complexes. But in a city like Antalya, where tourism is a major economic driver, malls and bazaars don’t seem to compete directly. Instead, they operate side by side, each meeting a different set of needs.

Traditional markets, especially the one in Kaleiçi, are rooted in experience. A visit there is less about efficiency and more about atmosphere—wandering stone alleys, browsing handcrafted goods, and haggling with vendors. These are spaces built around local identity, where what’s being sold often comes with a story.

The Mall of Antalya, by contrast, is built for convenience. Familiar brands, predictable pricing, food courts, escalators, air-conditioning—it’s a polished, standardized environment. It caters to a different retail logic. A visitor might head to the mall in the afternoon to pick up sneakers from Nike or a shirt from H&M, then later spend the evening browsing the stalls of the old town for spices or handmade pottery. It’s not a question of choosing one over the other. The two retail formats serve different purposes, and together they cover the full range of what shoppers—especially tourists—are looking for.

Visitor Perception and Overall Experience

The Mall of Antalya has positioned itself as one of the city’s leading commercial venues, a status reflected in multiple TripAdvisor awards driven by user reviews. Visitors consistently cite its contemporary design, open layout, and cleanliness as standout features. Practical aspects—such as accessible parking, accommodations for people with disabilities, and child-friendly spaces like the sizable playground—are also frequently noted.

When it comes to pricing, the picture is mixed. Relative to other high-end shopping centers in Antalya, the mall is generally seen as fair in terms of cost. Still, some international visitors have pointed out that prices across Antalya’s formal retail sector have been climbing, in some cases nearing those of cities in Western Europe. For travelers focused on bargain hunting, the neighboring Deepo Outlet Center remains the preferred stop.

In broader terms, the Mall of Antalya has fulfilled its role as conceived by its developers. It serves as a major commercial anchor, a regional entertainment venue, and a social gathering space. By combining international retail, food, and cultural elements, it’s become more than just a shopping center—it’s now a fixture in Antalya’s urban landscape, playing a key role in both its economy and its public life.