Building a hotel is an expensive business, but before you build you need a high-quality location. Pai Siam (TASE: PIES), controlled by Shlomo Dakokey, has notified investors of an updated valuation of the King Solomon Hotel project that it plans for Jerusalem. For the purposes of its third quarter financials, the company has received a valuation of the leasing rights of the project of NIS 286 million, up from NIS 98.8 million at the end of the first half of the year. The leap of 189% within a single quarter stems, the company says, from progress in planning of the project, with approval by the Jerusalem Planning Building Committee’s of the Urban Building Plan that will apply to it, including the expanded building rights that the company requested.
Pai Siam’s share price has climbed 10% in October, but at this morning’s opening it was still down 4% for the year to date. The company’s market cap is over NIS 700 million.
The luxury hotel will be on eleven floors above ground, with eight floors below ground. The location is the corner of Koresh Street and Shlomo Hamelech (King Solomon) Street in central Jerusalem, a short walk from the Old City’s Jaffa Gate.
The appraiser’s report attached to the notification, by Z.C. Researches and Surveys and signed by appraiser Erez Cohen, reveals the history of the land on which the hotel will be constructed. It turns out that until 1990, the owners of the rights on the land were "bearers of Iranian passports" whose names were not disclosed. They sold the land to a company called Parishta, which in turn sold it to Pai Siam in May 2022.
The planned hotel is graded A in the Ministry of Tourism’s grading system. The appraiser treats it as a five-star hotel, and states that Pai Siam is in talks with hotel management companies in Israel and overseas. The hotel will contain 209 rooms, plus twelve 60 square meter suites.
The appraiser attempted to estimate what the price of a room in the new hotel will be. On the basis of a survey of luxury hotel room prices in Jerusalem on Booking.com that included the Mamilla, David Citadel, Orient, Inbal, Waldorf Astoria, and King David hotels, for a room and breakfast, he found that for this December the price (including VAT) is NIS 2,443 at the David Citadel, NIS 1,167 at the Orient, and NIS 2,443 at the Waldorf Astoria. The highest priced hotel in the survey is the King David, where a room costs NIS 2,611. The appraiser assumes a range of NIS 2,350-2,550 a night for the new hotel, at an occupancy rate of 65-70%.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 30, 2025.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.