ISTANBUL, Turkey — Turkish retailer Beymen has made a bold bet on luxury with the opening of its largest store to date, located in Istanbul’s emerging Tersane district.

Formerly a military-controlled zone, the waterfront area in the Golden Horn is being repurposed into a mixed-use development that aims to cater to the country’s growing luxury cohort and well-heeled tourists with a mix of high-end hotels, innovative shopping formats and cultural experiences.

At the center of it lies Beymen Tersane — Galleries of Luxury, a 130,000-square-foot multibrand store that has taken residence in a 600-year-old former Ottoman naval shipyard.

Designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas’ OMA agency, it is the most sophisticated expression to date of Beymen’s luxury strategy under the ownership of Qatari investment fund Mayhoola for Investments, its sole owner since 2019.

One year after opening to the public, the store on Saturday celebrated the launch of an exhibition of exceptional handbags that illustrates how…