New Shuk Rothschild Allenby is now open

Right underneath the Meier on Rothschild building, the new Shuk Rothschild Allenby just opened its doors.

Following hot on the heels of the Sarona Food Market and Shuk HaTzafon, the new Shuk brings some exotic and high quality food stores and restaurants in the south of Tel Aviv.

Whether you live in Tel Aviv all year round whether you're just a tourist visiting the White City, you need to go visit this new place for the following reasons:

1. The Location! It’s on the corner of Rothschild and Allenby, in Tel Aviv’s most up-and-coming area!

2. It’s open 7 days a week!

3. It’s open in the evening, a great place to stop and get some munchies after a long night on the town! Coming soon there’s going to be live music and shows.

4. Some of our old favourites are going to be there, including Bunny Chow (get a free drink with your meal with the Secret Tel Aviv VIP Card) and HaMalabiya.

5. Some cool new additions to the Tel Aviv street food scene, including Mexico City and Chipsea Kings (what an awesome name!).

6. Plus some cool fresh food shops, including Master Fish and a fruit and veg stand – great for shabbat shopping!

This part of town was already popular for the Shuk HaCarmel. This new addition that expands the available range of options is very welcome.

Source Secret Tel Aviv

Founders of Mobileye move into Meyer on Rostchild

Amnon Shashua chairman of the extraordinarily successful Mobileye company and Ziv Aviram, its CEO have snatched 2 extensive flats in the recently completed Meier on Rothschild.

Amnon spent NIS 80m ($21m) for the penthouse spanning floors 41 and 42 while his co-founder went so a more modest 300sqm flat on the 28th floor for just NIS 30m ($8m). The penthouse extends over 600 sqm, has 100 sqm of terraces overlooking the city and Mediterranean sea and has its own swimming pool and sauna.

In 2012, Eyal Waldman, the CEO of Mellanox had made the news after purchasing a flat on the 31th floor for NIS 19m ($5m). The founder of social gaming company Diwip, Yaniv Gamzo, also bought 2 flats in the tower, one that he rents and the other that he lives into.

You can check the view from the penthouse in the video below:



Source Calcalist

Meier on Rothschild sales top ₪1bn

Meier on Rothschild tower which is expected to accept its first occupants within the next 6 months has reportedly sold 130 apartments for not less than NIS 1.028 billion. According to the developer of the tower, Berggruen Residential, an additional 10 flats and 4 penthouses, worth a total of NIS 450 million, are left for sale.

"This is a new Israeli record in terms of revenue for a single building - the previous record being held by Canada Israel for the Midtown residential tower and that raised NIS 900 million", explained a representative from the company. He also indicated that in the last month they witnessed very high sales topping more NIS 60 million. The tower, which sits on Rothschild Boulevard at the corner of Allenby has 42 floors and 140 apartments in total.

When it comes to prices, luxury apartments classified as "normal" are around NIS 9-12 million and duplex penthouse apartment located on floors 41-42 costs about NIS 70 million. There is also a penthouse apartment on floors 38-39 listed at no less than NIS 170 million, and that has been waiting for an owner since 2011. Maintenance costs will be about NIS 17 per square meter.

Read the rest at Ynet

Top ten Israel property deals of 2014

"Globes" looks back at 2014 and ranks the ten most expensive homes sold in Israel over the past year. Six of the homes were in Tel Aviv, two in Jerusalem and one each in Herzliya Pituach and Ramat Hasharon.

Here is the list starting with the house of Arik Vardi that reportedly used to belong to Baroness Batsheva Rothschild and which is located in the Ramat Aviv neighbourhood:

• NIS 130.1 million - Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKP) founder chairman and CEO Gil Shwed, and "Globes" businessperson of 2014, bought a 560-sq.m. house in the Tel Aviv neighborhood of Afeka in August from ICQ founder Arik Vardi, who had bought the home in 2000 for just NIS 20.8 million.

• NIS 110 million - Ofer Investments controlling shareholder Leora Ofer bought a penthouse in January in the Herbert Samuel project on Tel Aviv seafront from her own company. The 690-sq.m. apartment covers the 20th and 21st floors and also has a 300-sq.m. patio.

• NIS 70 million - DEKA, controlled by Jacky Safra bought the 1,700-sq.m. Sherover House in Jerusalem's Talbieh neighborhood in December from the estate of Gita Sherover. Located by the Jerusalem Theater at the junction of Pinsker, Marcus and Dubnov streets, the house sits in a 1.1 acre lot and has building rights for an additional 1,120-sq.m.

• NIS 45 million - PokerStars CEO Mark Scheinberg bought a 588-sq.m., 10-room apartment in Tel Aviv's Rothschild 1 project in February from former Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI) chairman Shlomo Nehama.

• NIS 43.5 million - Canadian-Jewish businessman Moti Maximoff bought a 13th apartment in Tel Aviv's Meier-on-Rothschild Tower in March. The 800-sq.m. apartment has 48-sq.m. of balconies on the 31st floor of the 42-floor building. He bought the apartment through his company, Ironstone Capital.

Meier on Rothschild reaches 12th floor

Meier on Rothschild Tower which is being built on an area of 3.57 acre on the corner of Rothschild Boulevard and Allenby Street has now reached the 12th floor. Apart for the tower, the project also includes retail space.

The tower will include 37 floors built over 6 floors of parking space. On top of the shopping centre that will total 2900 square meters will be a private pool, a SPA and a courtyard. Building was originally approved for 27 stories, but the developer successfully managed to obtain additional building rights for an extra 10 residential floors making the tower 158 meters high from street level.

...

Foreigners pay NIS 34m for 3 flats in Meier on Rothschild

Berggruen Residential reports that it sold three apartments in its Meier on Rothschild luxury high-rise in Tel Aviv for NIS 34 million. The three apartments were sold to foreign residents during a housing fair in Paris.

A 393-square meter apartment with two 12-square meter balconies on the 18th floor was sold for NIS 17 million. A 273-square meter apartment with a 12-square meter balcony on the 18th floor was sold for NIS 11.3 million. A three-room apartment on the second floor was sold for NIS 5.5 million.

Berggruen Residential CEO Yigal Tzemach said, "The apartments sold this week gave an average price of $13,000 per square meter, $2,000 more than the average price per square meter in 2010. I believe that, as construction progresses - it is currently at stage of the underground parking garage - prices will continue to climb. The pace of sales in the building is definitely satisfactory, and more than half of the 121 apartments have been sold."

"Homeless billionaire" mulls Tel Aviv home

Nicolas Berggruen, known as the "homeless billionaire," has told "Globes" that he is considering buying a home in the luxury Tel Aviv project that he is developing. Berggruen, whose company Berggruen Residential is developing the 37 floor Meier on Rothschild project said, "Perhaps in the end I will buy an apartment in the project. But will I use it very much? No. Because I don't live here."

Berggruen, 49 tomorrow, the founder and president of global real estate developer Bergruen Holdings, is called the "homeless billionaire, because despite having wealth of $2.2 billion and being in "Forbes" list of 500 billionaires, he owns neither a home or a car and spends most of his time traveling and staying in hotels. Berggruen's late father Heinz, one of the world's largest art dealers, fled Nazi Germany for the US in 1936.

Berggruen's Jewish roots have drawn him to Israel. He said, "We simply wanted to find interesting things to do in Israel. It took us a year to find something unique". Construction will begin in the coming months on the Meier on Rothschild project, on the corner of Rothschild Boulevard and Allenby Street in the heart of Tel Aviv's financial district. The project has been designed by world famous architect Richard Meier.

Berggruen who arrived in Israel yesterday told "Globes" that he was drawn to Israel by his Jewish background. He said, "Israel is an interesting country, full of life and there are opportunities here. But I am sure that in some emotional way there is a connection between my Jewish roots and my investment here". He added, "What interests me in Israel is to put up a unique project. There is no point in doing something just to do something, and which resembles other projects. We are talking about a small country where it is not easy to do business. So why put up a project here if I could put up an identical project in another place in the world more easily". He continued, "In Israel everything is more complicated. Everything requires a discussion and takes more time and there is more administration. In my opinion, because this is such a small place everybody is more active over every matter. There are many clever people here and that complicates matters."

In addition to the Meier on Rothschild project, Berggruen also invested in seven historical properties slated for conservation in Tel Aviv's Nahalat Binyamin Street. The project was recently sold to Y. H. Dimri. Berggruen explained, "In Nahalat Binyamin we lit a spark of enterprise but it was less important that we complete the project. It is difficult to do business and a headache to implement preservation and restoration projects and work here with the various planning committees, mainly in the area of preservation sites."

He said, "So we decided that if we are investing our energies in something it is preferable to do invest in a project that has a view of Tel Aviv - the project in Rothschild Boulevard". He continued, "I have no doubt that the Nahalat Binyamin project will be implemented. But it doesn't bother me that much if it does or doesn't because it's not a building that we started from the beginning but buildings we preserved". Berggruen added, "In Rothschild, in contrast, we were ready to invest time and headaches, and pay an architect from New York. In Rothschild, I don't want to cut corners. Meier and I expect quality and we are ready to sacrifice for it. Here we have to do it from A to Z".

He stressed, "Richard Meier's influence on downtown New York, the city's business center, is an example of what can happen in Tel Aviv. He said, "There are perhaps 12 architects that changed the face of New York. If we arouse this ambition in Tel Aviv and influence other developers to do like us we will have an impact and that's what excites me about this project".

Berggruen explained that 45 of the 91 units in Meier on Rothschild have been sold including to famous people like Nat Rothschild. He said, "Some of my friends have bought apartments in the project and there is a lot of pressure on me to provide a good product. They'll get in touch with me if something is wrong".

Source Globes

Meier on Rothschild continues to rise higher...

A foreign resident has bought a 145-square meter apartment on the 15th floor of the Meier on Rothschild, a building under construction at the corner of Rothschild Boulevard and Allenby Street in Tel Aviv.

The price was NIS 7.5 million ($1.95m), or NIS 52,000 per square meter. Prices in the project range from NIS 40,000 ($10,000) to NIS 80,000 ($20,000) per square meter.

The latest purchaser from overseas joins Nathaniel "Nat" Rothschild, who has bought a 500-square meter triplex in the building for over NIS 60 million ($15.5m).

Berggruen Residential Ltd. said that half the space in the Meier on Rothschild building had been sold.

Last month, the Tel Aviv Local Planning and Building Commission allowed Berggruen Residential, owned by Nicolas Berggruen and his partner Hagag Cohen Investments, to increase the height of the 27-storey building to 37 storeys. In practice, the building will have 32 residential floors topping the 13-meter high lobby.

Source Globes

Meier on Rothschild competing with White City Residence

Tel Aviv's skyline continues to grow higher. The Tel Aviv Local Planning and Building Commission allowed yesterday the adding of floors to the Meier on Rothschild luxury residential skyscraper for a total of 37 floors. The building is owned by Berggruen Residential Ltd itself owned by Nicolas Berggruen and his partners Hagag and Cohen.

The approval brings Meier on Rothschild almost to the height of the Neve Tzedek by the Sea skyscraper, which is being built by Eurocom Global Real Estate Ltd and ZMH Hammerman Ltd. In January Tel Aviv Local Planning and Building Commission allowed the adding of ten floors to this project, bringing it to 40 floors.

However, the planning commission rejected Berggruen's request to add 16 floors to an office building.

Meier on Rothschild will cost an estimated NIS 200 million to build. The building permit issued in August 2009 allows 92 apartments on 27 floors, although the blueprint was for 32 floors above the ground floor and basement. This has now been increased to 37 floors.

Source Globes