The sale of the Kikar Atarim car park in Tel Aviv for NIS 150 million to the JTLV fund, headed by developers Amir Biram and Yakov Shalom Fisher, has been finally annulled, by a decision of the Supreme Court. The decision was the outcome of an appeal by the Tel Aviv Municipality against a decision by the Tel Aviv District Court in 2018 to annul the sale.
The parking lot formerly belonged to the Tel Aviv Municipality (73%) and the Marina Hotel on the site (23%). In 2008, the Marina Hotel sued for dissolution of the partnership, and the court eventually directed that it should be dissolved through a sale by tender.
In 2017, JTLV bought the Marina Hotel's share of the parking lot, and then reached agreement with the Tel Aviv Municipality to buy the latter's share for NIS 150 million. The Kikar Atarim site, on Tel Aviv's seafront, is the subject of a controversial plan to build residential towers, which will involve demolishing the car park. Until then, it will remain under the management of the Atarim company. As part of the new project, a parking lot with 350 parking spaces will be constructed, and will be transferred to the ownership of the Tel Aviv Municipality.
The owner of a property adjacent to Kikar Atarim appealed against the agreement with JTLV, on the grounds that when it approved the agreement the City Council was not apprised of the full facts, and that the Municipality was obliged to hold a tender for the sale.
The Tel Aviv District Court upheld the appeal, and now the Municipality has lost its own appeal against that decision. The Supreme Court held that the Municipality was bound by law to hold a tender for the sale of the asset.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on August 4, 2020
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