josh007

A group of foreign investors is in advanced negotiations to buy the Nahalat Binyamin neighborhood project in Tel Aviv for $50 million, TheMarker has learned. The property involved includes five plots marked for preservation. The Cukierman & Co. Investment House's real estate department is negotiating the deal, and it seems that an Israeli company is also interested in purchasing the project. French investors already bought a building that is part of the project for $7.3 million.

The project will include 50,000 square meters of construction, of which 10 percent will be residential units in buildings designated as landmarks, and 20 percent will be housing in new buildings. Some 15,000 square meters will be commercial space, and 17,500 are designated for parking in the busy, historical center-city neighborhood.

The vision of the project is to combine the Nahalat Binyamin pedestrian mall with a number of adjoining streets, Hatavor and Rambam, and create a renewed neighborhood. The original plan was for an $80 million investment in luxury apartments, a boutique hotel, street-front shops and an open-air mall - as well as large amounts of underground parking. The original developer, Ruth Speizer, started buying property gradually in 1991 and over 14 years spent $42 million - mostly financed by bank loans. After the real estate market troubles in 2000, the project was frozen.