The Tel Aviv District Court approved the sale of Kings City in Eilat to Dona Bercleys for NIS 36 million. The petition was filed by the law offices of Amit, Pollak, Matalon & Co, which was appointed as the attraction’s custodian on behalf of Bank Leumi.
The highest bid for the park was submitted by a partnership between Dona, held by Shalom Shai, and Moti Green’s Bercleys UK Israel. The offer beat a bid by a group of investors led by Amos Luzon.
Kings City was founded a decade ago at an investment of more than NIS 200 million. It entered receivership after the project’s owner, the Ezion Geber company, accrued debts of NIS 52.7 million, primarily to Bank Leumi.
Ezion Geber is a partnership of Africa Israel Hotels and Elran Real Estate from cousins Gadi and Dori Dankner which itself collapsed and entered receivership. At the last evaluation requested by Bank Leumi, Adi Naor Real Estate Appraisal placed the park’s value at NIS 24.7 million.
Kings City, which presents biblical narratives to its guests, includes a 4-story building with 10,000 square meters of space in the shape of a royal castle. It is built on 4 acres of land in Eilat’s eastern laguna, near the Herods, Dan, and Royal Beach hotels.
The park opened in July 2015; it was rented to a subsidiary of Fattal Hotels, which has managed Kings City from the second half of 2010 but is not involved in the receivership.
The Eilat attraction suffered from continually decreasing visitor traffic and revenues over the years; when the receivership process was announced, the Fattal subsidiary announced it would not renew its rental agreement when it ends next month.
The land on which the park was built was zoned for “tourist attractions” but the appraisal noted that talks with the city architect raised the possibility of changing the land’s zoning for hotel attractions, given the approval of the local and district committees. If such a change was approved, then the property holders would be allowed to build an 8-story hotel with 200 rooms and 1,500 square meters of commercial space.
Bercleys Dona said: “Unfortunately, more than a few businesses in Eilat have been closed and abandoned. Currently, there are not many developers who would be willing to put in the hard work and invest in the development of Eilat which is the most significant tourist destination-city in the country. We believe Eilat’s potential has yet to be realized and there is much work to be done to raise this city to the glittering heights of every tourist city in the world.”
When asked about the company’s intentions for the property, it responded: “The aim is to create a worthy plan likely a hotel which respects the city and the space and that will draw others to the area but it is too early to know, we are currently dealing with finding creative solutions to maintain the place and prevent its closure. We will do everything we can to avert its closure.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 24, 2015
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