Eight years after entering the Tel Aviv real estate market and acquiring the Beit Ha'amudim site on Nahalat Binyamin Street from billionaire Nicolas Berggruen, the YH Dimri Construction & Development Ltd. (TASE: DIMRI) company is selling its three remaining buildings to a buyers group.
Dimri acquired the site, which contained six buildings at the time, most of which were marked for preservation, in 2010 for NIS 140 million. The buildings were Beit Hatamar at 8 Nahalat Binyamin, a building at 15 Rambam Street, a building at 7 Nahalat Binyamin Street, a building at 54 Mohilever Street, Beit Ha'amudim at 12-16 Rambam Street, and another building at 44 Hatavor Street. In April 2012, Dimri sold Beit Hatamar to French investor Gerard Bokobza and gave an option to buy the rest of the buildings to other investors. Some of the investors interested in the buildings did not meeting the financing conditions, so the deals did not go through, but Dimri sold the buildings at 7 Nahalat Binyahim Street and 15 Rambam Street over the years, leaving the company with its last three buildings.
Over a year ago, Pego-Gov, a company owned by Shemer Gov and Ido Peso that organizes buyers groups, signed an option to acquire the three buildings still owned by Dimri. The company formed a buyers group to buy Beit Ha'amudim and the building at 44 Hatavor Street for NIS 125.5 million. The buyers group also bought the third lot at 54 Mohilever Street for NIS 16 million - a total of NIS 142 million paid to Dimri by the buyers group and the company itself. Dimri will post a NIS 55 million pre-tax profit on the deal.
No new urban building plan including commercial space on the ground floor and apartments above it has been proposed for the buildings. It is believed that the buyers group will try to promote a plan that will make optimal use of the permitted construction space, subject to the building restrictions imposed by the preservation plan applying to the most of the buildings. The Yaniv Pardo Architects firm is promoting a new plan for the group, to be called the "Benjamin Site." The plan includes an interior garden, a parking lot, 2-4 room apartments, and special apartments.