August 18, 2021

Ashtrom to build 58-floor residential tower at Elite Junction

Globes, 18.08.2021

Ashtrom Group (TASE: ASHG) has won the tender by Azorim Investment, Development and Construction Ltd. (TASE: AZRM) to build the residential tower in the Exchange Ramat Gan project, owned by Azorim and Migdal Insurance, which is under construction on a fifteen dunam (3.75 acre) plot at Elite Junction in Ramat Gan. The cost of constructing the tower is estimated at NIS 369 million. At this stage, construction of the parking lot is being completed by Danya Cebus. The residential tower is expected to be completed by the end of 2025.

The Exchange Ramat Gan project was designed by MYS Architects, and is being built on the site formerly occupied by the Elite chocolate factory, at the junction of Jabotinsky Street, Arlozorov Street, and Abba Hillel Silver Street in Ramat Gan, close to the Diamond Exchange and the Tel Aviv Savidor Central Railway Station.

The project comprises two towers, one residential and the other for offices, with commercial and leisure space between them. The residential tower will be 58 stories high, and will contain 355 apartments, a lounge, a swimming pool, work spaces, and so on. The second tower is being developed by Migdal Insurance, and will contain 3,000 square meters of commercial space and 60,000 square meters of office space on 48 floors. The towers will be 210 meters high.

The project has an interesting history. In 2006, US companies Crescent Heights, owned by Sonny Kahn, and The Trump Organization, owned by Donald Trump, bought the Elite factory plot for $44 million. The seller was Strauss Group Ltd. (TASE:STRS), owner of the Elite brand, and the buyers planned to build a 70-floor tower on the site, to be called Trump Plaza Tower.

A few months after the deal was signed, the Elite factory was removed from the site, and a year later, Azorim and a group of diamond merchants bought the site from the US companies for $80 million, meaning that the latter almost doubled their money in a year and a half.

In 2012, the Ramat Gan Planning and Building Commission approved an amended plan for two towers: a 60-floor residential tower containing 296 apartments, to be constructed by Azorim, and a 25-floor office tower with 25,000 meters of space to be constructed by the consortium of diamond merchants.

Further amendments were made in 2014 and 2017, and it is the latter version of the plan that is now being built. The developers are required to renovate and Elite factory building, which is marked for preservation.

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on August 18, 2021