Serdar Bilgili

Serdar Bilgili was born July 21, 1963, in Istanbul, Turkey. He was educated at Robert College in Istanbul and earned a bachelor's degree in Business Administration (with a background in photography) from the University of Redlands in California. He has been an active real estate investor and developer in Turkey since 1984, and today serves as Chairman of Bilgili Holding (Bilgili Group), described as one of Turkey's leading real estate development and investment companies.

Before building his real estate franchise, Bilgili was prominent in Turkish sports administration. He served as Secretary General and a board member of Beşiktaş J.K. from 1992 to 1998, and was President of the club from 2000 to 2004 — a tenure during which Beşiktaş became the first football club traded on the Istanbul Stock Exchange.

In 2010 he founded BLG Capital, a real estate private equity firm that has grown into one of the more visible European real estate PE platforms, with a specialty in hospitality and luxury travel assets. BLG raises institutional capital: its BLG Turkish Real Estate Fund II reached a final close of roughly €152 million (with about 70% of capital from US institutional investors — endowments, pension funds, insurers, and foundations), following a 2012-vintage predecessor fund of around €142 million. Lazard acted as global placement agent for the fund.

Bilgili's signature approach is repositioning historic or under-used buildings into high-end, branded destinations. His projects underpin some of Istanbul's marquee luxury developments and have earned recognition including an Istanbul Tourism Award (2008) for the Akaretler project and an Urban Land Institute award in London (2009) for the Akaretler Row Houses restoration.

• Repositioning specialist: In his own words, "One thing we do well is taking historic or less-used buildings and repurposing them for new use." He looks for complex, under-utilized, or landmark assets that can be converted into premium hospitality/residential product.
• Luxury hospitality bias: BLG anchors developments with top-tier hotel and lifestyle brands — Aman, Ritz-Carlton, W, Mandarin Oriental, Peninsula, Soho House, The Ned.
• Opportunistic / value-add real estate PE: Invests via institutional funds targeting luxury residential, mixed-use hotel-and-residential, student accommodation, and complex redevelopment.
• Post-pandemic US conversions: Sees opportunity in repurposing vacant US office space (notably New York and Los Angeles) into alternative uses.
• Cross-border capital: Raises predominantly from US institutions and deploys across both Turkish and US markets, positioning as a bridge between international capital and Turkish/US real estate.