Discount Bank and Mizrahi Bank are likely to move outside of Tel Aviv and acquire out-of-town office buildings, "Globes" has learned. Each of the two banks is looking for 15,000 sq.m. office space for its new central management. If the plans are realized, it will be the first time that large banks have left Tel Aviv.
The main reason the two banks gave is the high municipal taxes, which reach $12,000 per sq.m. per month, costing the banks millions of dollars each year. Other towns, such as Ramat Gan, Petah Tikva, Rishon LeZion, and Ra'anana, have municipal tax rates amounting to a third or a fourth of Tel Aviv's rates.
The two banks independently contacted Anglo-Saxon Tel Aviv general manager Amos Glazer, asking him to find buildings for their central management, while emphasizing the possibility of leaving Tel Aviv.
A bank leaving Tel Aviv will cost the city the loss of millions of dollars in municipal taxes, while damaging the city's reputation as a financial and banking center.
At the same time, the banks are willing to consider offers to rent offices "at bargain prices" in Tel Aviv. Among other possibilities, the banks are considering renting the office building being constructed by Sonol and Avraham Rubinstein on Petah Tikva Road and the Europe-Israel office building, formerly the IBM building, on Weizman Street.
Anglo-Saxon confirmed that the two banks had communicated their serious consideration of moving out of Tel Aviv. Discount Bank said that it does not report on transactions it is negotiating. No response had been received from Mizrahi Bank at web posting.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on December 5, 1999