İstanbul offers a mélange of ancient and post-modern — a European city with an Asian soul where two continents collide, where politics and religion intermingle and where rambunctious street life in the teeming urban neighborhoods is nothing short of fascinating.

The city witnessed enormous physical and economic changes just in the past decade. Business travelers visiting after an extended time away will find Taksim Square is no longer the upscale business, hotel and dining district they once frequented. In far-flung districts along the Bosporus, small fishing villages emerged as opulent residential neighborhoods. Throughout the city on both the European and Asian sides, gleaming office towers, designer hotels, upscale shopping malls and real estate offices replaced abandoned factories, warehouses and agricultural land.

Globalization, revitalization and gentrification finally caught up with İstanbul in a big way, for better or worse, resulting in new financial districts; a plethora of restored seaside residential villas; and so many cultural facilities, art galleries and design firms that the city’s designation as European Cultural Capital in 2010 never really expired.

All this development, of course, causes angst among the working poor who feel the sting of higher rents, commuters who suffer increasing traffic congestion and environmentalists who lament the loss of green space. In addition, Turkey’s unique geography, which shares borders with Iran, Iraq, Syria, the Black Sea and Ukraine, can bring the world’s most difficult political situations right into the neighborhoods of İstanbul, the country’s largest city.

The surge of economic development in the city, however, produced a staggering increase in business travel (Ataturk Airport, the fifth-busiest in Europe, saw traffic increase by nearly 14 percent to 51.3 million passengers), resulting in many new deluxe hotel properties and meeting venues along with plans to construct a huge second airport on the European side, to be known as İstanbul New Airport, by 2018.

In this booming city of 13 million residents spread out across 2,000 square miles of hills and waterways, with neighborhoods linked by traffic-clogged streets and bridges, crowded passenger ferries and a modern metro, business travelers tend to arrange hotels and meeting locations based on their proximity to client corporate addresses.

In the Beşiktaş district, the 5-star Raffles Istanbul opened in 2014 within Zorlu Center, an upscale shopping development and performance venue. This impressive design-driven hotel, filled with stunning artwork and a rooftop pool with great city and Bosporus views, lies just five minutes by taxi from the new business neighborhoods of Levent, Şişli and Maslak and 15 minutes from Karaköy, the city’s revitalized and now trendy neighborhood of cultural attractions, restaurants and historic buildings.

Before leaving the hotel for the day, indulge in a morning workout and massage at the Raffles Spa, followed by a large Turkish-style breakfast at the hotel’s Rocca restaurant, alone or with business associates.

If your first appointment is in Karaköy (Beyoğlu district), you will be in the same neighborhood as the İstanbul Modern, Turkey’s first private modern art museum, located in a former warehouse on the shore of the Bosporus. The museum, founded in 2004, opens at 10 a.m., early enough to spend an hour before moving on to business. For local clients who appreciate contemporary art, as many do, lunch at the museum’s restaurant overlooking the water makes for a pleasant and casual meeting.

Take a 15-minute stroll from the Modern, either along the Bosporus or on Bankalar Caddesi (Avenue of Banks, the area’s main shopping and business street), to Vault Karaköy, a small meeting venue located within two historic buildings beautifully converted into the 44-room House Hotel in 2014. Local clients will be eager to see how the designers created four meeting rooms within the former vaults of the Credit Ottoman Bank.

Close by you’ll find Karaköy Lokantası, a popular restaurant for an upscale business lunch in a busy and friendly dining environment. Serving excellent local mezes (small, traditional Turkish dishes) as well as grilled baby lamb chops, zucchini fritters and wonderful wine and desserts, the restaurant is known for its excellent cuisine and frequented by architects and designers from nearby firms. Or head to another good choice in the area, Tarihi Karaköy Balıkçısı, for deliciously prepared sea bass in parchment and rolls of skewered sole.

In the northeast part of the city, closer to the Raffles hotel, the new Levent and Maslak business neighborhoods compete for the tallest real estate projects, with glass skyscrapers sprouting as fast as field mushrooms after a morning rain. As of press time, Levent hosts the tallest building in Turkey, the 54-floor, mixed-used, İstanbul Sapphire, which opened in 2011. Not to be outdone, Maslak’s Diamond of İstanbul skyscraper will rise a bit above the Sapphire when completed this year. These neighborhoods and others now teem with financial and real estate firms, upscale residential towers, high-end shopping and new hotels including the Wyndham Grand, Marriott Hotel Şişli and Radisson Blu.

The burgeoning business districts of İstanbul house the Coca-Cola Eurasia and Africa Group’s headquarters as well as PepsiCo Türkiye’s regional office. Other American multinationals — Adobe, Visa, Citibank, Wells Fargo, Starbucks, Nike, Cargill, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson, GE Turkey, Apple, Microsoft, Lilly and Cisco Systems — also find İstanbul’s central Euro-Asian location perfect for conducting business in the region.

Hagia Sophia © Ministry of Culture and Tourism in Turkey

Although many of the city’s major tourist attractions, including Topkapı Palace, the Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazaar and Hagia Sophia, are situated across the Golden Horn in the historic Old İstanbul area, business travelers will most often find themselves in the shimmering glass towers to the northeast.

Tourists may be in short supply in these modern, new business neighborhoods, but shopping malls and restaurants abound. Invite local clients to a business lunch at Gina, a beautifully designed, pricey Italian restaurant in Levent’s new Kanyon Mall. Sheraton İstanbul Maslak, a good place in Maslak to conduct a luncheon meeting, offers 13 conference rooms of various sizes and the international-style Café 333. The hotel can also deliver meals straight to a meeting room. The location adjacent to the M2 metro line (İstanbul Technical University stop) makes the Sheraton easily accessible from city center in 20 minutes (metro fare runs about 90 cents to $1.80).

For late-afternoon cocktails with your local business partners, visit The İstanbul Edition’s Gold Bar in Levent. Located on the ground floor of this new hotel, complete with a 20-foot tropical fish aquarium, the bar offers a sitting area of low built-in sofas as well as seating on the landscaped, outdoor terrace. The hotel’s restaurant Cipriani usually fills with international business travelers in bespoke suits wheeling and dealing over exquisite dinners.

İstanbul’s prosperous new business districts, veritable urban forests of glass and steel, may not reflect the city’s colorful fabric of fish markets, tobacco sellers, tiny coffee shops and the ubiquitous döner kebab stands of most neighborhoods. However, they provide a pleasant environment in which to do business, dine at gourmet restaurants and stay at hotels offering high-tech amenities, luxurious surroundings and alluring views of the city.

TRAVELER ALERT

As of press time, occasional political demonstrations occur around Taksim Square, Gezi Park and other areas. Check the U.S. Department of State website for specific advisories and updates.