Approval finally granted for an extra 10 floors

Tel Aviv's White City Residence luxury apartment project being developed by ZMH Hammerman Ltd. (TASE:ZMH) and Eurocom Global Real Estate Ltd. (TASE: EGRE) in Neve Tzedek have received approval from the Tel Aviv Regional Planning and Building Commission to add ten more floors.

The high-rise tower will now have 40 floors instead of 30, and 168 apartments instead of 118, totaling no more than 5,775 square meters, and 10% more for balconies.

The White City luxury tower will be built by Uri Dori Engineering Works Corp. (TASE: DORI).

The project is part of the widening of Yitzhak Elhanan Street into a four-lane thoroughfare between the Shalom Tower and the seafront. The plan includes public spaces alongside the road on land currently occupied by the Bet Yaakov school, which is moving to Bnei Brak.

The plan also calls for a 10 meter island along Yitzhak Elhanan Street with a sidewalk, cycle track and two strips of trees.

Source Globes

Record breaking sale in White City Residence Project

An apartment measuring about 240 square meters (2,583 square feet) in the White City Residence – Neve Tzedek by the Sea project was sold last week to a family from central Israel for NIS 10.5 million (about $2.8 million).

The apartment is located on the sixth floor of a 30-story tower. It has balconies measuring about 90 square meters (969 square feet) in size and it faces southwest. The Neve Tzedek by the Sea project is being constructed on the corner of Yitzhak Elhanan and Tabor Streets in Tel Aviv and is jointly owned by the Eurocom Real Estate and Z.M.H. Hammerman companies and a group of European investors.

The project includes a 40-story building and some 160 luxury apartments facing the sea, as well as a boulevard of boutique stores located on the ground floor in the pavilion attached to the tower. According to Amir Shaltiel, CEO of the Eldar company which markets the project, "Investors today are looking for safe channels, and the fact that the project is enjoying a construction boom and has financial guidance, supports the buyers' decision."

Shaltiel added that "foreign residents who have been following the developments in Israel over the past year have also realized that Israel of all places proved its economic strength and maintained stability in real estate prices."

Source Ynet

A new high rise project on the tayelet

Yet more high-rises with luxury apartments will be sprouting up on the Tel Aviv beachfront. The developer is Henry Taic, who also owns the David Intercontinental hotel group. The project, called David Promenade Residences, envisions two towers connected by a ground-level glass structure. One of the towers is to be 25 stories tall and have about 70 apartments. The final number is flexible because some potential buyers are thinking about snapping up more than one apartment and creating large homes. One buyer is in talks to buy six apartments, the company said.

The building next door, also 25 stories, is slated to be a hotel. The apartments will be big, from 100 square meters to 1,000 square meters in the case of the most expensive duplexes. Each apartment will have a porch of up to 12 square meters. The price will probably range from NIS 55,000 to NIS 70,000 per square meter.

At a press conference presenting the concept last week, representatives of Taic said the hotel won't block the sea view from the apartments' porches because they won't be built precisely in parallel. Entrance to the residential tower will be from Hayarkon Street.

Dwellers in the residential tower can receive services from the hotel, which the Taic group intends to call the David Hotel. They will have access to the swimming pool and spa, as well as room service, for instance. The residents will also be able to reach the hotel through an underground parking lot, say the developers.

The Taic group estimates that the investment will run at NIS 750 million. The project is being designed by the Tel Aviv-based firm Feigin Architecture, which also designed the Royal Beach Hotel and Princess Hotel in Eilat, as well as the King David residential high-rise on Hayarkon Street.

Actually, the Taic group has yet to obtain the requisite permits to develop the project, but company representatives told the press conference that they expect the paperwork to be completed in a matter of weeks. Occupancy is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2013.

Taic, who lives in Israel, says his family has owned the land for decades. It had refrained from developing the site because it had been occupied by protected tenants. He's been thinking about this project since around 2000, Taic told reporters, and the planning process took seven years. As for the name David, it's in memory of his father David Taic.

Source Haaretz