This is the last chance to re-evaluate the question of why the Ministry of Defense and IDF headquarters should not be removed from the Kirya in Tel Aviv. The question is inescapable, since the terrorist attacks in the US proved the vulnerability of urban areas with economic, military, political and symbolic value.
This is precisely the issue regarding the Kirya, a strategic target located in the midst of a crowded urban area. The Israel Land Administration (ILA) is promoting a major project involving the Kirya, preparing to move the Ministry of Defense and IDF headquarters to the northern part of the compound, north of Kaplan Street, and an office tower complex to the south.
The ILA has marketed 287,000 sq.m. to date, and financed heavy transportation expenses for the project. In a few weeks, the Tel Aviv District Planning and Building Committee is scheduled to approve the ILA’s plan to market an additional 200,000 sq.m. The added marketing will finance and speed up the moving of the defense establishment to their part of the compound. At the end of the move, there will be several office towers in the civilian part of the compound, with the Air Force tower, the high Ministry of Defense tower, and two no less tall IDF towers, all virtually touching each other.
This strategic pearl will be in the midst of a forest of skyscrapers that is sprouting along Petah Tikva Road and the south Kirya complex at Israel’s busiest intersection.
Should this be permitted? Can the process be stopped and a quick and proper alternative be presented? If military bases are being taken out of city centers in Beer Sheva and Haifa, why not from Tel Aviv too? Tel Aviv was already a key target in the Gulf War.
Once, there was a suggestion to move the military part of the Kirya to Or Yehuda. One of the defense establishment’s main reasons opposing the idea was the near impossibility of re-establishing and replicating the existing infrastructure, and they said there was no point in talking about it. The chance was missed. Cynics at the time said that army officers did not want to move far away from the restaurants on nearby Ibn Gvirol Street. The same could probably be said today about the adjacent Azrieli Mall.
A few years ago, a defense establishment memo asking these questions was circulated among government ministries. The memo reiterated the conclusion that moving the defense establishment from the Kirya would incur immense costs, in order to re-establish and replicate such a complex infrastructure, and the value of the freed-up land would not cover the cost. The cost/benefit principles did not justify the project.
Even if the idea was raised and examined in good faith in the past, two things must be said. First, land values and building percentages have changed, and an objective party is re-evaluating the costs. Second, in the new world following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, there are new, basic calculations that must be made.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on 16 September 2001