Mizrahi Bank is to purchase six office storeys in Ramat-Gan's City Gate Tower from Ocif-Aviv, and not seven as originally planned. The area of each storey is 1,440 sq.m. and the bank will purchase 8,640 sq.m. altogether. The bank will pay $2,725 per sq.m., or $23.5 million. The contract will give the bank an option to purchase the 7th floor in future, at an identical price.
The signing of the contract, scheduled for the end of last week, has been postponed for several days (according to the bank) or for a week or two (according to Ocif-Aviv). The parties say the reason for the postponement is technical. Meanwhile, however, the bank is still urgently promoting the approval by the Municipality of a plan to build a 10,000 sq.m. 19-storey office tower for central management on a plot it owns on Rothschild Boulevard, corner of Nahalat Binyamin in Tel Aviv.
The bank will actually pay less than $2,725 per sq.m. for the Ramat-Gan offices. The $23.5 million price tag includes 130 parking places, worth $2.5 million. Thus actual payment for the offices will be $21 million, or $2,430 per sq.m. The way the Ocif-Aviv group is presenting the deal is that the bank will pay $2,725 per sq.m., while getting the parking places free of charge.
The district planning and building committee finally approved the Town Building Scheme for the construction of another 18 storeys, so that the tower will consist of 64 storeys. Once an announcement of the approval is published, this will put the final seal on the contract in which the Ofer brothers purchased 12 storeys, with 17,280 sq.m., for $50 million. The contract provided, at the time, that the Ofer brothers could cancel the deal or any part of it, if the new Town Building Scheme was not approved.
Ocif (owning 75% of the project) and Aviv have so far sold 38 storeys in the buildings, with a total area of 27,100 sq.m., for $150 million. These figures include the deals with Mizrahi Bank (still not finally signed), and with the Ofer Brothers. In addition, Teva will take seven storeys, Givat Marom two storeys, and the Ramat-Gan Municipality two storeys, in return for the sale of adjacent lots, enabling another 18 storeys to be built.
Doron Aviv purchases 64th floor apartment for $2.1 Mln
Three weeks ago, Doron Aviv, son of Moshe Aviv, one of the owners of the Ocif-Aviv group, purchased the 64th and highest floor of the City Gate tower for $2.1 million. The 64th floor is a circular 690 sq.m. apartment. Aviv, a senior employee of the Aviv company, paid $3,040 per sq.m. The apartment will be the highest in Israel, at an elevation of 233 meters above sea level.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on 2 April, 2000