Zim Israel Navigation signed a lease last week to rent an 8-storey, 13,500 sq.m. building in shell condition at the southern entrance to Haifa from Matam – Scientific Industries Center . Zim will pay $10 per sq.m. a month, index-linked, in a 10-year lease with a 10-year option at a higher rent.
Matam will carry out all the finishings for $5.5 million, based on a price of $400 per sq.m. Zim will maintain the building itself and will not pay Matam maintenance fees. Zim also rented the building's four-storey, 13,000 sq.m. parking lot for $3 per sq.m. per month, index-linked, under the same terms as the office space.
Zim will transfer its headquarters, including its global communications center, when the finishings are complete.
Matam is jointly owned by Bayside Land Corporation (Gav Yam), which has a 50.1% stake, and the Haifa Economic Company (owned by the Haifa municipality), with a 49.9% stake.
Zim House is the second of four buildings with a total area of 40,000 sq.m. that Matam is about to construct in Haifa South. The first building, with an area of 9,800 sq.m., is under construction and Matam is negotiating to lease it to various concerns at $14.5 a sq.m. a month, in finished condition.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on 29 July, 2001