Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality has granted a building permit for the Kikar Medina project - one of the most complex and long-running projects in the country's planning history.
Several days ago the landowners, who uniquely are also the project's developers, received approval and a building permit for three towers with 453 housing units, above three underground floors for 906 parking spaces for apartment owners and 720 parking spaces for the public.
The permit says that, "Around the towers, on the ground floor, there will be the development of an area as a public park that includes walking and bicycle paths, gardens as well as a peripheral avenue of trees in three circles, a lake, complexes for play and fitness facilities and three kiosks - open for use by the general public." The permit also says that out of the 720 parking spaces in the public parking lot, 14 parking spaces will be assigned to the disabled. The project will also include storage rooms for 96 apartments.
Construction of the project will be performed jointly by Electra Construction and Ashtrom Group, which have already completed excavation and earthworks. A source close to the matter told "Globes" that on Sunday the first cement will be cast for the foundations on which the three towers will be built. The project is being managed by Waxman Govrin Geva (WXG) Engineering, which has been supporting the project since 2001.
In October the first financing payment was made available by non-banking finance company Bareket Capital, which allowed the landowners to pay the various levies in order to receive the building permit.
Private investors began buying land in Kikar Hamedina in 1942 and it is their heirs who today own the land. They originally planned housing between an inner circle and an outer circle. In 1997 the landowners formed an association, which in effect became a development company. In 2000 Moore Yaski Sivan (MYS) was chosen as the project's architects and in 2017 the current plan was approved.
The landowners committee chairman Danny Goldschmidt said, "This is a historic day and we are very happy about receiving the permit after such a long investment. This is land that my grandfather bought and the permit has been received 25 years after I began working to promote the project. Everything has happened here, every possible delay and every pitfall you could think of. Today, more than 150 employees are already working in the area, the budgets are flowing, and this is going to be a mega construction and an astonishing project."
WXG chairman Guy Geva said, "This is a very significant day, which creates certainty for the landowners - certainty that they have been waiting for a very long time. The works themselves have already begun by virtue of the excavation and landfill permit, a phase that has already been completed and expresses one of the significant moves made by the landowners in this project. They decided to finance the excavation and landfill phase from their own pockets, so that the market would believe that this project is really going to happen. "The strategy was to issue permits in stages, to enable the construction of the towers upon receipt of the permit, and now we can announce that this strategy worked. This is an exceptional example of landowners taking responsibility for the event. They deserve a lot of credit, and also to the municipality that managed to form a very high-quality plan here that will offer, among other things, one of the most beautiful public spaces in the country."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on December 14, 2022.
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