Jerusalem Economic Corporation from the Mivne group has signed an agreement with Tidhar for construction of a huge residential and office project in eastern Tel Aviv, sources inform "Globes." It was also agreed that Tidhar would buy one quarter of the residential rights in the venture. Construction of the project is scheduled to begin this year.
The project will be constructed on a 30-dunam (7.5-acre) lot between Hashalom Road, Hasolelim Street, and Hahaskala Boulevard. It will strengthen the link between the Yigal Allon traffic artery and the Bitzaron neighborhood. The lot was used for decades as a parking lot for Tel Aviv municipality garbage trucks. The Tel Aviv municipality owns the lot, for which Jerusalem Economic Corporation has a lease until 2057.
The project will have two 35-floor residential towers with 360 apartments. 30% of the apartments will have two or three rooms. The project also includes two offices buildings, one with 40-floor and one with 13 storeys, with 70,000 square meters in total space. The four buildings will have 3,200 square meters of commercial space on their ground floors. The two residential towers will be along Hasolelim Street, while the two office buildings will be along Hashalom Boulevard.
Thinking about the coming generations
Tidhar will construct the entire project, while acquiring 25% of the residential right in the project, amounting to 90 apartments, for NIS 26 million. Once the plan is validated, the two companies will pay the Tel Aviv municipality betterment tax for their relative shares and an agreed amount for extending the lease on the lot. Extension of the lease will also make it easier to sell the apartments in the venture.
The project also includes a public building with a cluster of municipal kindergartens and mother and child clinics with 2,200 square meters and five dunam (1.25 acres) of green space. Four underground parking floors will be built, while 280 of the parking spaces will be allocated to a public parking lot to be operated by Ahuzat Hahof. The project will surround a green promenade continuing the existing area on Haskala Boulevard, and will continue on Hashalom Boulevard and Hasolelim Street. The Tel Aviv municipality will carry out infrastructure work to expand the access pathways on Haskala Boulevard at the expense of areas to be allocated from the project for this purpose.
The Tel Aviv Local Planning and Building Commission has approved the plan, but it is now awaiting a decision by the appeals committee, due to objections by residents of the nearby Hightech Towers. The project's cost is estimated at NIS 830 million, and the company believes that a construction permit for the project will be obtained by the end of the year.
Looking at the Bitzaron neighborhood
This is not the first partnership between the parties. The groups are partners in a residential project with 170 apartments now being constructed in the Bitzaron neighborhood.
A month ago, the companies, formerly controlled by Eliezer Fishman, announced that they were combining in the Mivne group, which following the merger also includes Jerusalem Development Corporation, Industrial Buildings Corporation, and Darban Investments.
This made Mivne one of the largest real estate groups in Israel in rental square meters owned, and the fourth largest company on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in terms of shareholders' equity. The group has 1.6 million square meters for rent in locations ranging from Metulla in the north to Eilat in the south on 610 properties with 2,800 tenants. The group currently has 10 projects under construction amounting to 190,000 square meters in Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Holon, Haifa, and Or Yehuda.
Tidhar, owned by Gil Geva, Arieh Bachar, and Mark Weissman, is a private company that began as a construction contractor. Half of its current activity consists of residential, office, and hotel development and urban renewal.
Adv. Shmulik Lechner and Daniel Bernstein of Naschitz Brandes Amir represented the Mivne Group in the deal.
Tidhar was represented by Adv. Anat Sterenlib-Molkho and Shiran Geva of APM, and Adv. Karin Ben David from the Tidhar Group.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on April 28, 2019
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