The local Tel Aviv-Jaffa planning and building commission today recommended for deposit a new municipal construction plan for the Kikar Atarim site. The plan includes demolition of the existing square, the construction of three high-rises for hotels and residences on the site, and an open municipal space connecting the beach area to Ben Gurion Blvd.
According to the urban building plan approved by the District Planning and Building Committee, the three towers can include up to 36 storeys, 600 hotel rooms, and 340 residential housing units with an average of NIS 80 sq.m. per apartment. Around the towers, on the Hayarkon St. level, the plan stipulates protected open spaces, an above-ground public building, and built-up public spaces beneath the upper square level. On the intermediate level between the street and the seaside promenade, a commercial municipal square is planned as a direct continuation of Ben Gurion Blvd. The plan also includes a system of passages for pedestrians and bicycle riders.
The Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality said that the number of parking places would be according to the standard in effect, in addition to at least 355 city-owned public parking places. The municipality added that the plan was designed to make the area "a bustling focus appropriate to the site," open the sea view from city side by lowering the square, and adding construction rights amounting to up to 80,000 sq.m. for hotels, residences, and commerce, and up to 5,000 sq.m. for public buildings.
Kikar Atarim covers 72 dunam (18 acres), and contains buildings and a public square built in the mid-1970s as a multi-purpose structure with several levels, including an underground parking floor, a filling station, shop levels with ceilings, and a public plaza for pedestrians. Pedestrians have access to the upper plaza by way of a ramp from Ben Gurion Blvd. that blocks the sea view from Ben Gurion Blvd. In addition to the lack of access to the square, all parts of the site are currently in a poor state of repair, including abandoned and sealed spaces and space occupied by squatters.
The rights to the site belong to the Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality, the Atarim company, and several private owners. The project's developer is the Adit Properties partnership, and its designer is Foster & Partners Architects London, Yashar Architects.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 7, 2015
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