The most valuable parcel of undeveloped property on Israel’s central coastline is finally being deposited in order to advance a plan. A massive residential and commercial development at Hof HaTchelet has finally been deposited after twenty years of hearings, permits, and objections. All the parties are now prepared to move forward to create what will become the most desirable new neighborhood on Israel’s central coast.
The Hof HaTchelet project is launching on an enormous scale. The 500-acre parcel will contain 12,500 residential homes in condominium-style apartment buildings. There will be over 7 million square feet of office space, 300,000 square feet of commercial space, 2,000 hotel rooms occupying 1 million square feet, as well as 680,000 square feet of government, municipal and public buildings. Along the six-kilometer coastline will be a 170 acre park. An active archaeological dig on the site, which draws substantial tourism and school visits, will be available for residents to access freely.
The name “Hof HaTchelet” has been translated as the “Azure Coast”, the “Turquoise Coast” and other colors in the blue-purple spectrum. Everyone who reads the Torah/Bible knows the color techelet. In the third verse of the Shema Yisrael, we are commanded to include a thread of techelet in our tzitzit. Techelet was the color of royalty. The priestly robes in the Temple were the color techelet. Techelet is a very rich deep blue within the purple spectrum. It’s a very unique color that looks a different color at night than it does in the day. The prophet Ezra describes the color techelet as being derived from a snail known as the chilazon. But this snail has disappeared for the past 1,500 years, so there has been no techelet in our tzitzit for that long. The flag of the modern state of Israel, designed from our tallit, is meant to be the color techelet. And the same Hebrew letters in “techelet” spell the word “tachliss”, the famous Yiddish word for something genuine the real thing.
The Talmud prohibits the wearing of the thread of techelet until we find the original source of the color. But some Chassidic sects have revived the practice, using a different blue. And in 2015, the Israel Antiquities Commission announced that they have discovered the original chilazon snail. So maybe soon we’ll be wearing techelet in our tzitzit and be like royalty again.
The Hof HaTchelet development was deliberately named for the biblical color of royalty, and the new urban community will be one of Israel’s premier addresses.
The architect of the development plan was Danny Kaiser, who previously served as City Engineer for Tel Aviv. The exact boundaries of the 500-acre Hof HaTchelet development are:
The northern boundary is the Herzliya Marina, the southern boundary is North Tel Aviv; the real estate stretches six kilometers along the central coastline and extends eastwards until the Coastal Road.
The Hof HaTchelet development has been consciously planned to preserve the integrity of the coastline. The new community will consist of buildings no taller than 8 story’s in the section closer to the coast, but may be up to 30 stories in the section bordering on the Coastal Road. The hotels will be in the section closer to sea, while the office buildings will be situated in the section by the Coastal Road. There will be schools, libraries, children’s daycare centers, clinics, synagogues, elder centers, and all local government and municipal buildings will be on site and easily accessible to all residents and workers in the new community. There will be public parks and open public squares everywhere. There will be bike paths and pedestrian walkways. The light rail Green Line will run down the center of the neighborhood’s Main Street, connecting commuters directly to Tel Aviv all the way to Ibn Gvirol Street.
The value of most undeveloped land in Israel has been increasing over the last twenty years as Israel’s economy has boomed. Land in Hof HaTchelet has been going up in price for many years in this economic environment. It is a highly desirable real estate, and smart investors always knew the value would skyrocket once it became developed. At each stage of the twenty-year permit process, the price of each acre went up.
The project has had to overcome a huge number of obstacles and objections by various parties and interest groups. The biggest objection that had to be overcome was the low density of housing at the proposed Hof HaTchelet development. The density of most urban developments in Israel is usually at least seven housing units per 1,000 square feet. Hof HaTchelet will have a density of only six housing units per 1,000 square feet.
Another objection to the development at Hof HaTchelet was that it was situated too near a similar adjacent development project built on the former airport at Sde Dov. Some have said that the Sde Dov makes the development of Hof HaTchelet “irrelevant”. At the current time, it appears that this objection and all the others have been overcome and Hof HaTchelet will now proceed as planned.
One of the main reasons that it has taken so long to approve the development of Hof HaTchelet is that the land is currently owned by a large number of separate entities – literally several thousand stakeholders. Some owners are individuals or partnerships of two or more individuals, some owners are corporations, some of the land is owned by the local municipality, and some is owned by the government of Israel. Some of this land was purchased during the British Mandate era, and was later steadily bought up with concurrent increases in value until today. There is little doubt that prices will further increase now that Hof Hatchelet is definitely going to happen.
Our law firm has clients who own land at Hof HaTchelet. Buying and selling land in Israel is can very simple if you do it right!
If you own land in Hof Hatchelet and you want to maximize the return on your land at this opportune time in history, please contact our law firm for a free consultation.
