Consortium to build underground data center in Afula

Partners of consortium to build underground Afula data center Credit: PR
Partners of consortium to build underground Afula data center Credit: PR

Europe-Israel Group, P.A.I. controlled by Omer Adam and the Swiss fund Lian Group have signed an agreement to build an underground data center in Israel.

Europe-Israel Group, P.A.I. controlled by Omer Adam and the Swiss fund Lian Group have signed an agreement to build an underground data center in Israel, with a huge investment of hundreds of millions of shekels

The group of partners, who have so far worked in stealth in order to promote the project, purchased the land in Afula for NIS 80 million. The group will become one of only a few players in Israel that is building an underground data centers - a market in which the supply of land in Israel barely exists, while demand for it is only rising, mainly from tech giants Google and Amazon. Those two companies recently won the Israeli government's Nimbus tender to set up cloud storage infrastructures.

Israel's data centers market has become one of the hottest sectors in Israel over the past year, which has been attracting many real estate developers including Azrieli Group Ltd. (TASE: AZRG), controlled by Danna Azrieli, Melisron Ltd. (TASE: MLSR), controlled by Liora Ofer and the Papouchado family.

A new player in the market has now been revealed for the first time, which includes three partners: "Europe-Israel" Group controlled by the Malul brothers Maor and Snir Malul, P.A.I., controlled by Omer and Yaniv Adam, and the Swiss investment fund Lian Group, controlled by Fiorenzo Manganiello, Nessim Gaon and Marc Lugassi.

The partnership group has begun planning the project to build an underground data center in Afula, through Spector Amisar Architects, a leading firm in Israel in this field.

The Group plans to build the underground data center in Afula, on 6.25 acres of land. The Group purchased the land six months ago with other partners at an estimated price of about NIS 80 million, after three years in which the Group promoted the master plan for rezoning land as a data center. The parties to the deal were supported by Adv. Barak Bing of the Pearl Cohen law firm. Europe-Israel Group, which is controlled by the Malul brothers Maor and Snir Malul, together with P.A.I., which is controlled by Omer and Yaniv Adam, specializes in locating and purchasing land, rezoning and enhancing it. So far the group has developed housing and commercial projects and bought very many properties and lots of land in Israel and abroad. The most outstanding deals conducted by the Group's real estate arm were land for housing and commercial space in Be'er Ya'akov. The Group also bought the Queen of Sheba shopping mall in Eilat from Melisron, for an estimated NIS 170 million, and has signed a long term agreement to operate the MIA Beach.

The Group is also building a 9,000 square meters shopping center, next to the high-tech park in Afula and has signed an agreement worth an estimated NIS 50 million for the sale of commercial space to the Victory supermarket chain. The company is also conducting negotiations, which should be completed towards the end of 2021, to buy shopping centers in Israel and abroad. Other holdings belonging to the Group include Smart Switch, which specializes in developing and providing smart home systems and its app has so far been downloaded by more than 500,000 users. Carpay, which is owned by the Adam family and the Malul brothers is in the advanced stages of developing a revolutionary venture in the car sector and the company is currently examining offers from strategic partners in the field of financing and insurance. The system is scheduled to be launched at the end of the final quarter of 2021.

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on May 10, 2021

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2021 .

Partners of consortium to build underground Afula data center Credit: PR
Partners of consortium to build underground Afula data center Credit: PR
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