Coming soon to Tel Aviv - the first gated community
By Yuval Azoulay
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/673906.html
""This is not for the top percentile - it is for the highest tenth of a percent," says Haim Hacham, marketing director of the project and Africa Israel."
--- A new neighborhood, planned to meet the needs of the top percentile, will be the first gated community in Tel Aviv. Adjoining Rokach Boulevard, it will feature about 4,000 apartments for noteworthy clients like Check Point CEO Gil Shwed, the director general of one of Israel's best known banks, famous attorneys, and senior officials of Israel's leading companies.
Some of the towers will be built on the ruins of the Ramat Aviv Hotel. The project is being developed by Africa Israel, the Lumir Group and Danya Cebus.
The average cost of a 150-square-meter apartment in the project, Savyonei Ramat Aviv, will range from $680,000 to $700,000. However, some of the larger apartments, of about 300 square meters with a view of the sea and numerous, additional amenities, will cost more than $1 million.
In an effort to protect the privacy and the property of residents, the neighborhood will be closed to pedestrians, gawkers and potential thieves. A high, well-designed fence will surround the 50 dunams set aside for the new neighborhood. Guards and greeters will welcome residents and guests. Pizza deliveries, friends and relatives will be permitted entrance only with prior arrangement by residents. According to the project's founders, a control system on the premises will prevent undesirables from entering.
Privacy will be only one of the small luxuries available to residents of the new neighborhood. They will enjoy access to a six-dunam private park, a pool, a gym, squash courts, a sauna and a number of other luxuries.
"This is not for the top percentile - it is for the highest tenth of a percent," says Haim Hacham, marketing director of the project and Africa Israel. "This calls for not only a high purchase price, but a high maintenance price. Required maintenance includes a great deal of landscaping, the pool and security personnel."
Construction of three additional towers, 17-22 floors each, and six terraced buildings of six floors each, should begin in the next several days. Marketing of the five apartments in the fourth terraced building, valued at $1 million apiece, has already begun.
The demolition of the Ramat Aviv Hotel was recently completed, and some of the towers will go up on the ruins. The hotel, built in the early 50s, hosted guests like actor Danny Kaye, prime minister David Ben-Gurion and the prime minister of Burma. The hotel was established by Yehuda Arazi, one of the leaders of the Haganah pre-state paramilitary organization, and Italian industrialist Maurizio Vitale. Ada Sereni, wife of paratrooper Enzo Sereni, who parachuted over Nazi lines with Hannah Senesh, was a partner in the establishment of the hotel.
Reuven Vitale, Maurizio's son, is an active partner in planning and implementing the new project.