Tel Aviv’s Kikar Hamedina has been transformed by three spiraling towers in advanced stages of construction. The 40-floor high-rises will house over 400 apartments and although construction is not yet completed, the district has already undergone a most major facelift.
Already back in the 1960s and 1970s development plans were advanced for the large area in the square but time and again they failed to surmount legal and planning difficulties. For decades, the square was surrounded by luxury properties but was relatively neglected. Only after a long struggle between the municipality and the landowners, and with the help of High Court rulings, was it possible to move forward with comprehensive planning that included, in addition to the construction of the three towers, upgrading infrastructure, developing open public space and building public institutions.
The project received a building permit from the Tel Aviv Municipality in December 2022, after more than seven decades of disputes. The construction is being conducted jointly by construction companies Electra and Ashtrom.
Adi Gazit, CEO of Bareket Capital, the financing company, which provided the landowners in the project with a total credit of NIS 2.05 billion together with Clal and Migdal, says that the project will be ready for occupancy within two years.
250 landowners will receive 453 apartments. Ashtrom explains that the fact that all the apartments belong to the landowners and are all supposed to be delivered at the same time required construction of the three towers simultaneously, and not in stages. “This is a particularly challenging process on an engineering and operational level. The pace of progress made it possible to complete about seven floors per month, compared to only about three floors in a conventional design, and to shorten average construction time for each tower to just 11.3 months,” the company notes.
The renovation of the square, considered one of the most important urban projects undertaken in Tel Aviv in recent years, has aroused interest not only in terms of planning and architecture but also its economic and transport impact.
Will the new area be filled with luxury stores or affordable outlets? How will the project affect the flow of traffic in the area? What is the price range of the new apartments and how will the development affect the value of nearby properties?
Prices: NIS 65,000 per square meter on average
Some apartment owners have already started selling their apartments, but no transactions have been recorded since the beginning of 2025. RE/MAX Win agent Guy Barel says that based on previous deals, the average price per square meter in the project is NIS 65,000, but there have also been transactions that were closed for NIS 80,000 per square meter and even more.
Last December, a four-room apartment on the 38th floor in one of the three towers was sold for NIS 10.63 million – NIS 75,913 per square meter; a four-room apartment on the 39th floor was sold in May 2024 for NIS 9.59 million – NIS 68,520 per square meter; and a four-room apartment on the 38th floor was sold in April 2024 for NIS 9.58 million – NIS 68,405 per square meter. All transactions were for 140 square meter apartments.
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Among the celebrities who have bought apartments in the project are singer Omer Adam, who bought a 200-square-meter apartment for NIS 15 million, and Spanish soccer star couple Sergi Roberto and his Israeli wife and model Coral Simanovich, who paid NIS 13 million for an apartment on the top floor of one of the towers.
Currently, a 5-room 155 square meter apartment with a 15-square meter balcony, as well as parking and a storage room, is being offered for almost 70,000 shekels per square meter on the middle floor of one of the towers.
“For comparison’s sake,” Barel explains, “the price of new apartments sold in the area after construction is an average of NIS 60,000-62,000 per square meter.” Barel believes that occupancy of the project will lead to a decline in prices in the area, at least in the short term, due to excess supply of new apartments in Kikar Hamedina and the surrounding streets. “Rova (District) 4 in Tel Aviv is one of the areas with the highest number of urban renewal projects,” Barel says. “This means that buyers interested in purchasing apartments in the area are gaining power over contractors due to the excess supply, which can push prices down.” He further notes that the Tzameret project in Tel Aviv, which is not far from the Kikar Hamedina project, is also expected to experience a decline in demand.
Commercial space: Kiosks instead of stores
The decades in which attempts were made to implement the project led to major changes in the original plans. In one of the older plans, cafes, boutique restaurants and designer stores were planned to integrate into the design of the towers.
However, Danny Goldschmidt, a representative of the landowners in the project, tells “Globes” that the current plan for the project will include only four small cafes in kiosk format – small pavilions that sell coffee similar to those existing on Rothschild, Nordau and Ben Gurion Boulevards. Three of them belong to the rights holders in the project and another kiosk is owned by Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality.
In addition, next to the three towers, a park will be built covering about 40 dunams (10 acres). The park will include green lawns, pedestrian and cycle paths, seating areas and playgrounds. At the same time, an elementary school is already in advanced stages of construction, which will include 18 classrooms and six special education classrooms, including an underground sports hall. A four-floor community center is also under construction, as well as an underground parking lot with 906 parking spaces for private use, and a public parking lot with 720 parking spaces.
Transport: Thousands of additional cars
The addition of hundreds of housing units, public buildings including a school and a huge parking lot, will lead to a major increase in vehicle and pedestrian traffic in the area, which raises questions about the ability of the existing infrastructure to cope with the new load. This issue also came up during discussions of the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality’s local planning committee, especially in the context of the school.
Tel Aviv-Yafo Deputy Mayor for Transportation and Road Safety Meital Lehavi tells “Globes” that when planning began, the intention was to build a tunnel beneath the entire square. “But over the years we have learned that tunnels create impassable areas for walking and cycling, such as LaGuardia, Carlebach, etc.”
Lehavi adds that it was decided to manage traffic from the location instead of a tunnel, in order to cope with the new volume of traffic in the area. “The construction ratio in the project is relatively low in order to leave open areas for the public’s well-being. The plan was careful to mix uses to create a living space that allows for education, community, commercial and recreational services near the home. Mixing commercial and residential uses is good for traffic as they create opposite movements at the entry and exit.”
She also notes that the sidewalks around the square have been widened and upgraded to allow for comfortable walking on the sides of the square, and alongside this, there are internal passages and access roads within the square that will allow for shortcuts to the various services and wandering around the space that will also include a park with a lake in its center.”
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on September 25, 2025.
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