“Returning to Rothschild Blvd.” is the slogan on a billboard on a building at the corner of Rothschild Blvd. and Balfour St. in Tel Aviv. The slogan is not only a comment on social and urban life on the boulevard, but also a change in its prestige, to the point of becoming an urban status symbol.
Rothschild Blvd., one of Tel Aviv’s oldest and most beautiful boulevards, is an urban barometer of a life-style combining residences, a financial center, commerce and culture. A pedestrian on the boulevard will encounter office towers mixed in with buildings slated for preservation, pubs, restaurants and cafes.
Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion declared Israel’s independence on Rothschild Blvd. in May 1948. But by the 1960s, the area had deteriorated, suffering from residential outflow and the emptying of apartments and schools, and the entry of offices and businesses.
In the 1980s, the Tel Aviv municipality launched programs to encourage the return of residents to the downtown area, the rehabilitation of buildings, and preserving architecturally important and historic buildings. It also sought to oust offices from residential buildings and concentrate them in the historic downtown district. The plan has succeeded, and new residents are occupying Rothschild Blvd., which is now undergoing a revival.
A culture of restaurants and cafes has developed along Rothschild Blvd.’s western side, where residents mingle with employees of Tel Aviv financial district. Rothschild Blvd. is crossed by some of the city’s most important commercial streets, including Sheinkin St., where the downtown revolution began; and Allenby St., once Tel Aviv’s most important commercial streets, but now mainly a traffic artery.
Rothschild Blvd.’s revival and development into Tel Aviv’s business center has also attracted many foreign investors, who are buying apartments, offices, and entire buildings. A US investor bought the Ubank Ltd. building at 38 Rothschild Blvd. from First International Bank of Israel (TASE: FTIN1 ;FTIN5) controlling shareholder Zadik Bino for $10 million. In another large deal, Israel Discount Bank (TASE: DSCT) bought a 14-storey office building from Meshulam Levinstein Contracting and Engineering (TASE: LEVI) at the corner of Yehuda Halevi St. and Herzl St. for $43.7 million the highest price ever paid for an office building in the city.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on October 2, 2005