Following Israel Discount Bank board of directors’ approval for the sale of the bank’s headquarters site in Tel Aviv to Meshulam Levinstein Construction, on July 29, Levinstein has applied for increased building right to the plot. The four-dunam (one-acre) plot at the corner of Yehuda Halevy and Herzl Sts. also contains a building designated for preservation and the bank's parking lot.
Levinstein will construct an 11,600-sq.m. building and a 240-space covered parking lot on the site, at a cost of $30 million, based on the 300% approved Municipal Building Plan. Discount Bank will rent the new building.
Levinstein will apply to the municipal planning and building board for 450% building rights. Discount Bank will also apply for add more space in the plan, derived from the construction rights for the building on the plot slated for preservation at the corner of Lilienblum and Herzl Sts. and other rights.
If the applications are approved, the project will double in area to 22,000 sq.m., and the investment will increase to $50 million. Discount Bank has not promised to rent the additional space. In that event, Levinstein will pay the bank another $600,000, as well as the additional betterment tax.
The deal means that Discount Bank has finally decided to sell the new headquarters it is building on Abba Hillel St. in Ramat Gan. The building skeleton has been built, and is worth an estimated $25 million. Discount Bank has been negotiating to sell the building to Harel Insurance Investments or Nitsba. A sale will greatly improve the bank's cash flow.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on August 4, 2002