# 20 OĞUZ GÜRSEL
Oğuz Gürsel, founder of Kiska Construction Corporation.
Constructıon’s Bıg Thınker Kiska built the renowned High Line Park (NY), the 14th St.-GreenlineMetro Tunnel and Park RoadGreenline Metro Tunnel (Washington, DC), the NYC Water Tunnel Shafts (Brooklyn), the NJ Turnpike, the Whitestone Bridge (Bronx, NY), and the Goethals Bridge (Staten Island, NY / Elizabeth, NJ) 42 • TurkofAmerica
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ven when traveling to the US as a tourist was a challenge in 1980’s, he was dreaming of building a skyscraper in New York City. His business was slow in the Gulf countries, Russia and Iraq and NYC was so inviting. When he found two young Turkish-Americans who lived in New York, he explained to them what his dream was about. The young professionals were a little bit scared of building a skyscraper and tried to convince him to build small projects. “New York was cosmopolitan and cool to invest in. We were thinking that building and selling a high-rise apartment was easy. We did try that,” says Oğuz Gürsel, founder of Kiska Construction Corporation, based in Ankara, one of the most prominent construction companies in Turkey. Gürsel founded KiSKA-USA, a subsidiary of KISKA Construction Corporation. His team found a place at 94th Street and 2nd Avenue and tore down the old buildings and built 32-story residential tower, The Huntington Condominiums, in 1989. “We were hoping to sell the building very easily but it did not happen.” The building was operated until 1998 as a condo, then Kiska converted it to the Marmara Manhattan Hotel. “This was how we started in the hotel
business in NYC,” he recalls. The Marmara Manhattan is the first Turkish-owned hotel in the city. The total sizes of the 109 rooms of the hotel is larger, in comparison, than the total of 334 hotel rooms in NY’s standard hotels. At that time, America’s economy was in turmoil and 250 banks failed. Kiska had another building at 5th Avenue and 93rd Street and they barely sold it. “After we sold the building, it doubled its value,” he says. After these residential experiences, Gürsel started to do the business that he knew. He focused on the construction of bridges, highways, shafts, viaducts, subways, irrigation & sewerages, and tunnels. Kiska developed new methods which made it 60% cheaper to fix old constructions. “In subway tunnels first time we used two drilling machines. In 2005, we were selected as the best bridge constructor in New York,” Gürsel indicates. Kiska is working on its second hotel project right now on Lexington Avenue in NYC. The Group currently is continuing projects worth 150 million dollars. “America is a very difficult country,” Gürsel adds.