12 towers with one million square meters of commercial, office, hotel, and business space will be built at the western entrance to Jerusalem, under a plan approved by the Jerusalem Local Planning and Building Commission, and submitted to the Jerusalem Regional Planning and Building Commission. Farhi Zafrir Architects won the Jerusalem Municipality competition to design the project three and a half years ago.
The new business district, running from the Bridge of Strings along Shazar Boulevard, Herzl Boulevard, and Rabin Boulevard, will create 40,000 new jobs. The business district will have effective transport solutions, including proximity to the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv high-speed railway (a 28-minute ride between the cities) and two light rail lines.
Four 24-storey towers will be built on the North Foreign Ministry lot, two of which will be part of the government complex and will be built by the Government Housing Administration. An office tower and a hotel or residential tower will be built on the Lilius lot, two 33-storey towers with 80,000 square meters of space will be built on the lot known as the Vehicles Administration lot. All these lots are located between Shazar Boulevard and Jaffa Road.
On the Binyanei Ha'Uma convention center lot, two towers with 260,000 square meters of space will be built for office, hotel, and commercial use, and will include a convention center. The hotel will have 800 rooms of the 2,000 rooms planned for the project. The convention center will be expanded with new halls added.
A 33-storey high-rise will be built on the Kaldash lot, owned by Shrem Fudim Kelner Ltd.
An eight-dunam (two-acre) public square will be built in center of the project, with access to the surrounding buildings and a station for the future Green Line of the Jerusalem light rail.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 14, 2012
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