Migdal buys Rothschild One

Globes is reporting that Migdal Insurance and Financial Holdings Ltd. has bought the Rothschild 1 Tower luxury residential and office building in Tel Aviv for NIS 40 million from A. AMN Investments Ltd., which bought it from Habas HZ Investments Ltd. a year ago. Migdal did not buy the building's 650-square meter commercial floor.

In August 2010, Bank Leumi rented 3,000 square meters in the building. The space was reportedly leased at NIS 70-100 per square meter in a four-year contract with two three-year options to extend. Habas sold the Rothschild 1 Tower to AMN for NIS 58 million in December 2009. Habas nevertheless remained responsible for leasing the property in order to maintain the building's character by choosing the tenants.

The 32-storey Rothschild 1 Tower has 37 apartments. Gross proceeds from the apartment sales were NIS 800 million. Eitan Wertheimer, the richest man in Israel, and a foreign businessman bought the last two apartments, each 700 square meters in area, on the 28th and 29th floors, for NIS 46.5 million in May last year. That's $12.6 million each which translates into a cost per square meter of $18,000.