ANKARA, August 21 (RIA Novosti) -- Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, also owner of the Chelsea football club, is building a 225-villa "Chelsea village" worth $30 million in north Cyprus for wealthy Russians, a Turkish business paper said.
Referans said Abramovich began showing interest in the unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus three years ago. Last year, he bought a land plot in Arapkoy for $5 million and began building a cottage village there. The project is to be completed by the end of 2007.
The Turkish paper said Abramovich seemed interested in investing in the tourism business. In 2005, he bought the posh Istanbul Safisa Hotel in Antalya, which will be inaugurated later this year.
Last week, the businessman traveled around the Turkish mainland resorts of Bodrum and Marmaris, on the Aegean Sea, and Istanbul, Referans said.
The Turkish press also said Abramovich has bought an unfinished hotel, the Keyland, in Marmaris, and is interested in a land plot in the resort town of Kushadasy, on the Aegean Sea, which he is ready to buy for $350 million.
He is also reported to be planning the acquisition a villa in the Bosporus Strait.
The latest reports quoted John Man, Abramovich's spokesman, as saying the rumors that the Russian tycoon planned to build a Chelsea village were untrue.
Mann also denied the reports that Abramovich was eyeing the tourism business in Turkey and a land plot in Kushadasy, and that he had allegedly bought the Keyland hotel.
The billionaire's spokesman said he thought the information might have emerged in an attempt to publicize certain regions at the expense of a famous person.
