Afik-Bidur Eilat, which is under the control of a group of US producers and investors, will invest $10 million in constructing an IMAX movie house in Eilat. The project will be erected within a year.
The group of developers and investors, headed by businessman Bennet Kaplan, will construct the project, after the Eilat municipality allocated land to the group without a tender. According to the developers' Israeli representative, the company will build two similar projects in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem at an investment of $10 million each.
The decision to build in Eilat first followed a survey, which found that Eilat lacks tourist attractions. The movie house will seat 300 people, and will be constructed in a six-storey building on a four-dunam site. There are currently over 100 movie houses worldwide with three-dimensional screens.
The company presented Eilat with a request to receive land without a tender a year ago. The approval was delayed, due to disagreement between the Eilat municipality and the Ministry of the Interior, which ruled that the deal was subject to the Tenders Law.
The Eilat municipality legal advisors presented a legal opinion to Eilat mayor Gabi Kadosh and the Eilat city council, according to which the tenders requirement does not apply to this deal. The opinion states that since the allocation is for a unique project, which only Afik-Bidur Eilat can execute, no tender is required.
Following the dispute with the Ministry of the Interior, the issue was transferred to a joint committee of the Ministry of Finance, the Israel Land Administration, and the Ministry of Tourism for approving tourist projects. The committee granted the developers an exemption from the tender requirement, even though the Ministry of the Interior had determined that the requirement did apply to the deal.
On the basis of the legal opinion given to the city council, the council decided to approve the land allocation without a tender.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on May 21, 2000