Globes, Guy Nerdi, 11.02.2020

Those who come to the Holon industrial zone via Route 44, en route from Jaffa to Ramla, encounter old-fashioned workshops, garages, used-car lots. The second part of the industrial zone, the one closer to Jerusalem Boulevard and the Peres Park, looks like a huge building site, with many beginnings of buildings with innovative architecture.

The Holon City Outline Plan, which was deposited in 2016, marked the city's derelict industrial area as an important development destination.The idea was to generate a source of income through the import of "clean" employment, which would put in property taxes. This plan received many objections, and in the meanwhile the planning spirit also changed, and the Holon municipality decided to take an unusual step to stop the outline plan.

Architect Mimi Peleg, a Holon city engineer, explains that in recent years, Holon realized that it was not enough to create another employment area: "In the past, the entire industrial area was uniform in character: workshops, dirty industry. At one point, the municipality decided to designate the inner area, which had quite a bit of land Vacancy, clean industry - this is the area where the Azrieli Center was established in Holon, with the idea that one ripple would spread and bring in more entrepreneurs.

"Over the last five years, there have been a lot of changes. We realized that we must empower rights to the subway and metro lines. You cannot stay with construction percentages of 300-400. We want to reach 360% in the industrial and craft area and in the clean employment area to 700%. "The planning director talks about doubling the city's population. A city of this magnitude is also additional employment. In addition, we realized that we needed to create a continuum between the city and the industrial area."

"Thinking about micro apartments for young people"

One of the innovations that Holon has added is the introduction of housing to the industrial area: "Everyone comes to work in Holon, but most of Holon come out. Until now, employment has been poor in the city. Our goal is to start working in Holon.

"When we started developing the industrial area, we were very focused on bringing the entrepreneurs and raising land values. Today we are pouring employment into the city and pouring the housing into the employment area."

The municipality's intention is also to allow the construction of small apartments (sheltered housing, student dormitories or rental apartments) also within the employment area.

What advantage does Holon's industrial area have over other locations?

Peleg: "First of all, it has excellent accessibility. Secondly, we want to take care of the public space. The City of Barcelona has decided that in order to lift Area 22 @ Barcelona, ​​it will take 25% of each space cell for public use. Each street has a respite. We also want to create one here Public spaces along the axes.

"I give the entrepreneur 1,000% rights and ask him to produce green spaces (PPP with pleasure) and also built public areas - kindergartens, a school, an elderly club. This way everyone benefits. "

Structure Group is one of the dominant entrepreneurs operating in the renewable industrial area of ​​Holon. The company owns two land divisions. One is a 59-acre plot on Peled Street with a 14,000-square-foot commercial building featuring stores of Rami Levy, Max, Delta, Adidas. The company intends to add another 15,000-foot, 9-story building above the commercial center and construct four more buildings 125,000 sq.m. additional offices. Another 40-acre lot is located on Merkava Street with industrial buildings with 100,000 sq.m. of building rights.

Dudu Zabida, Managing Director of Structure: "These are two very large land reserves, so they can be characterized by the construction of large, commercial campuses. We also think of micro-apartments.

"Over time, the amount of offices in this area will be in demand: It is an easily accessible transportation area, high parking standards and we believe the place has potential, but at a stage. It will not happen all at once. The benefit of Peled Street is that construction can be integrated into the 'Citadel of Civilization' neighborhood to the west. You find the lands of Mikveh Israel, which I believe some of them will also be resettled in the future. "

Zebida believes in the combination of small apartments in the area of ​​employment: "In the industrial area of ​​Herzliya Pituach we started with small apartments, not for families with children. It depends very much on what the industrial area looks like. If it produces life in the afternoon, in the evening, it creates a solution for parts of the population who do not want "Living in the neighborhood with parks, but a young atmosphere with pubs and restaurants. In this area of ​​Peled Street there is a proximity to the residential neighborhood. In the long term, we see a departure from the entertainment centers from the city of Holon to this area."

Amot Investment Company inaugurated last week's Amot Campus tower on an 11-acre lot at the corner of Sderot Jerusalem and Craft Road. This is a combination deal that the company signed with the municipality of Holon, the landowner. Amot's investment in the project is estimated at NIS 320 million.

Avi Mosler, CEO of Amot, tells Globes: "If you had asked me five years ago, I would have told you this was the next. Today, I say for sure this is the place. This area has become very accessible, there is demand from leading companies. We are close to the light rail green line and to the metro station. And besides, we have a parking standard that precedes the new regulations and so we have 1,000 parking spaces, which gives a complete solution to every customer-intensive tenant. This is something that cannot be accepted at the center. I think in a few years it will be Herzliya Southern Development. "

"At best in seven years"

Dr. Rina Degani of the Geocartography Institute, does not think the pace of population of new buildings will be rapid: "The main conclusion of our work on the entire Bat Yam, Holon and Rishon LeZion region is that the main economic plans for new employment complexes are related to mass transit systems, proximity to the major railway stations, Reduce the travel times on the road for employers and employers.

"In order to successfully market and populate all of the planned territories, the opening of the Green Line will be required, and the estimated date for its opening is at best seven years from now, to learn how long it took to develop the Red Line. If a leading company like Azrieli took almost five years to market all the territories, And that, along with relocating existing tenants from Azrieli-owned office space in Tel Aviv, means that it will take at least a decade to accommodate what is planned in Holon. "

High parking standard and low rent and property

Until the light rail green line, which is not expected to open before 2026, is paved, access by public transport is not very easy, and property owners and renters enjoy the high parking facilities in the area.

Doron Zander, CFO of the Middle Builders Company, which has been renting an office in Building B of Azrieli Complex for the past five years, does not stop praising the project: "I do not feel this is an industrial area. We feel like we are in the entertainment area. We have endless restaurants down here, there are holiday events here, kids activities, markets, lunches, laundry. We see that all around us are building more office buildings. I wouldn't give it a definition of an industrial area. "

As far as Zander is concerned with the Holon industrial area, there are only advantages: "There is very high accessibility here to Tel Aviv, but we do not need to reach Tel Aviv in the morning. This allowed us to reach new offices. We rented a black hole and did everything ourselves, so we have something We really like being there and we have an underground car park here, which gives the employees a sense of security. When our guests come they don't have to go into Tel Aviv, on the other hand they don't feel they are in an industrial area. And besides, we recently made a calculation and we pay about NIS 52 Per meter. "

Alongside the high school builders, they moved to the Azrieli Center in Holon Amidar, Taldor, Neta, Helman Aldubi and more. Alongside Amot and Structure, Azrieli is building another building, the Manor Project, which will be populated at the end of the year and Bezeq has already leased 20,000 sq.m., and Elder Investments is building two office buildings in the area.

"We worked very hard to build an interchange"

Motti Sasson, longtime mayor of Holon, is a thinker of the revitalization of the industrial zone: "The most important thing to me, to an industrial zone, is accessibility. We worked very hard with the Department of Transportation to build the East Holon interchange, and Holon's location is on Route 44, Ten minutes from Ben Gurion Airport and Ashdod Port. No location is better than us. Without entering Tel Aviv with all the traffic jams, the evidence is that more and more entrepreneurs are coming in here. Our biggest achievement has been Azrieli coming in. The lot belongs to the municipality and we did a combination deal with Azrieli. This has greatly reduced the risks entrepreneurs need to take. Our approach has attracted the entrepreneurs here. Our property tax is the cheapest in Gush Dan. We do not calculate the mantle and it comes out 25% less. This is a fact, if Azrieli the Great came to Holon and invested close to NIS 900 million, and is now building another 300,000 square meters. Others see it as good and that's why they come here. "

Incorporating living in the industrial area is not a common thing.

"We want a lot of use in the employment area. There are a lot of companies that want to build housing because today is a hit, good for entrepreneurs. We are accessible to all entrepreneurs' ideas. "