'Elitist' project vying for site of old Tel Aviv wholesale market
By Guy Lieberman
As the man behind one exclusive residential project for high-tech workers in east Tel Aviv, entrepreneur Dror Halevy is now consolidating a group of investors from the high-tech and capital market industries for a similar project on the site of the old wholesale market in Tel Aviv. The food company Tnuva is putting the site up for sale this week.
This project will be far more prestigious than the scheme Halevy led for high-tech industry workers exactly one year ago, in which a group of investors acquired land that formerly housed Tnuva near the Bitzaron neighborhood, for about $50 million. Thousands of high-tech workers sought to join the group in light of the attractive prices offered for apartments that are now under construction.
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The site of the old wholesale market is six times bigger than the one that is home to Halevy's earlier endeavor, but the method of attracting investor group members is similar. In fact, there is just one difference: high-tech employees will be joined by capital markets industry workers, and together will comprise at least 75% of the investment group. Halevy has enlisted a partner for the project, to be named "The New City" - Clal Finance and Underwriters chairman and former CEO and president of Ness Technologies Raviv Zoller.
If the group wins the tender for the land, it will be building a complex of 1,800 apartments on 60 dunams of land in the heart of Tel Aviv, on a site delineated by Hashmonaim St., and Petach Tikva Rd. and Carlebach St. The project will include four 40-story, and five 12-story, exclusive apartment towers around a landscaped park with a science museum, sports facilities and even a nursery school. The project will also include parking for thousands of vehicles. The plan is to include various apartment sizes, including studio apartments, garden apartments and penthouses, ranging from 71 sq.m. for a two-room apartment to 700 sq.m. penthouses.
One advantage of their model is substantially lower-than-market prices. Real estate sources say that two room homes will cost about NIS 800,000, while mid-level and higher level apartments will be going for about NIS 16,000 per sq.m.
The purchasing group model is said to save enormous costs, some of which is passed on to buyers, and some to the land owners. As in earlier projects, the advantage of a quality group, a closed community and low price tag is expected to ensure quick enrollment.
In response to the familiar criticism that the project is elitist and anti-egalitarian, Halevy says it meets the need of people to live in communities of their own kind.
"Haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews) do it and it doesn't seem elitist. In other places it happens naturally, like in Shoham, where residents don't mix with residents of Ramle. This is the center of Tel Aviv, after all, so how different could it be from the surrounding areas?
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