International legal practice Norton Rose said its Dubai office had advised leading developer Emaar Properties and Emaar Libadiye Gayrimenkul Geliştirme A.Ş. (Emaar Turkey) on the $500 million syndicated loan facility for financing of the construction of Emaar Square - a $2 billion mixed use residential and commercial development in the Űskűdar district in Istanbul.

The facility was arranged by Standard Chartered Bank, Emirates NBD Capital Limited and HSBC Bank.

It is the second Emaar development in Turkey and will comprise residential towers with over 1,000 high-end residential units, an office complex with a leasable area of 40,000 sq m, a shopping mall with a leasable area of 150,000 sq m and a hotel to be operated under Emaar’s ‘The Address’ brand.

The development is located on the Asian side of Istanbul.

Norton Rose partner Matthew Escritt said, "Over the last couple of years we have seen strong investor interest in the Turkish market. We were delighted to be able to use our experience in this market to advise Emaar in relation to this high-profile project in a jurisdiction which presents a number of complex challenges for projects of this nature."

"This is the latest in a series of Turkey-based transactions on which we have advised and further evidence of the strength of our Turkish practice," he stated.

The Norton Rose team was led by partner Matthew Escritt and senior associate Martin Botik.

Birsel Law Offices advised Emaar in relation to Turkish law aspects. Latham & Watkins acted as international counsel to the arrangers and ASC Avukatlık Ortaklığı advised on Turkish law aspects.-TradeArabia News Service