Construction will begin this year on the land vacated by Eilat's former airport. 2,469 housing units will be built as well as 2,776 hotel rooms, 88,000 square meters of office space and 95,000 square meters of commercial space.
Most of the lots in the central area have been marketed to developers, and construction on some of the lots will begin in 2025, with first occupancy expected in 2028 and full occupancy by the end of the decade. The planning of the northern and southern sections has not yet been completed, and their occupancy is expected in the first half of the 2030s.
Unlike most of the city's neighborhoods, which are residential only, the neighborhood is expected to include a combination of housing, hotels, commerce, and offices. With its central location in the city, the neighborhood is targeting buyers looking to buy a better quality home and upwardly mobile young middle class families seeking an urban experience that is currently lacking in the Red Sea resort. In addition, the relative proximity to Ramon airport and the entrance to the city may attract families from the center of the country looking for a vacation home, as well as investors looking for vacation apartments for short-term rental.
Real estate website Madlan CEO Tal Kopel said, "Closing down Eilat's airport freed up a large area of land in a central location in the city, and enabled the planning of a mixed-use district whose residents will enjoy good connectivity to the hotel area, the old center, and also to additional new neighborhoods planned in the northeast of the city.
"Unlike the dormitory neighborhoods that have been built and are being built on the edges of the city in recent decades, the airport district will be an urban neighborhood with a variety of shopping, entertainment and employment options within walking distance, which is expected to attract a population that is looking for a modern urban experience, and is also willing to pay more for it than the prevailing prices in the city."
The new neighborhood will have seven-floor apartment buildings along two parallel east-west roads and a new north-south road parallel to Road 90. The neighborhood is divided into three areas: the southern area will include housing and commercial and recreational areas, the central area with housing and hotels, and the northern area with a mix of uses that will include residential, commercial, offices, and hotels.
Housing will be divided into blocks, with a variety of buildings that will include terraced houses, rooftop garden buildings, and apartment buildings. Residents of the neighborhood will enjoy access to street-side commerce in the hotel buildings as well as in the office building area west of the neighborhood, and throughout the southern area.
The neighborhood's planning includes public buildings, but it is not yet known which buildings are planned in them. The district is planned with gardens in the residential areas, as well as a linear park along the north-south road of the district, and the huge terminal park in the southern part of the district, where tourist attractions, commerce, a concert complex and a public park are planned.
Accessibility in the neighborhood will be good for cars but less so for public transport. The district is long and narrow, and borders the main Arava Highway (Road 90) to the west and Durban Street to the east. Bus services in Eilat includes a small number of lines, with low frequency, and it is likely that this will also be the case in the district. The southern part of the district is relatively close to the central bus station, making it easy to get to buses leaving the city. In the distant future, a high-speed train line may be built to the city, and although the location of the city railway station is not yet known, it is likely that due to the central location of the district, it will be close to the station.
A continuous, high-quality network of bicycle paths is planned in the north of the district, but no paths are known to be planned in the center and south of the district. Also, there are no existing bicycle paths in the north of Eilat at all, and there are no paths planned, so cycling will probably not be a safe option in the city.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on March 30, 2025.
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