International businessman Patrick Drahi bought the luxury Tel Aviv seafront Mandarin Oriental project on Hayarkon Street last year, "Globes" has learned, in a huge deal worth an estimated NIS 900 million.
The two 25-floor buildings are also known locally as the Dolphinarium towers. One tower will be a 227-room hotel managed by the exclusive Mandarin Oriental hotel chain and the second tower will have 230 apartments ranging in size from 75-300 square meters. The project also includes 1,000 square meters of ground floor commercial space and a 1,200 square meter public building for marine activities.
Moroccan-born Drahi was raised in France, lives in Switzerland and has Israeli citizenship. He owns Hot Communications through international telecom company Altice, which he founded. In 2019 Drahi bought Sotheby's for $3.7 billion and in Israel he owns the i24 international news TV channel.
Many of the apartments in the project have already been sold over the years, fetching high prices of NIS 100,000 and more per square meter because of its attractive seafront location. According to deals reported on the Israel Tax Authority website, the most recent deal closed was for a 118 square meter, three-room apartment on the 24th floor, which was sold for NIS 21.46 million. In May 2024, a 79 square meter, fourth floor apartment was sold for NIS 8.2 million and in December 2023 a 245 square meter, 24th floor apartment was sold for NIS 41.7 million.
An estimated NIS 1 billion was invested in the project by the developers with Israel Discount Bank and Harel providing NIS 700 million in financing. The betterment levy alone for approval of the project amounted to NIS 370 million.
A deal exchanging land on which the Dolphinarium was demolished
This is a renowned project in Israel's real estate sector, created as a result of a land exchange deal for the purpose of demolishing the Dolphinarium building. As part of this, the old Dolphinarium building that was located on the beach promenade was demolished, and the land returned to the Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality, so it could be incorporated into the seafront promenade. In exchange for the land, an area was allocated slightly inland between Hayarkon and Herbert Samuel Streets, on which the project is currently being built.
The project was sold to Drahi by its developer, Seagate Real Estate, whose investors, as previously reported by "Globes", include Shmuel Harlap, the Bronfman family, Sir Ronald Cohen, Jonathan Kolber and Zvi Barak. Seagate purchased the land in 2015 from businessman Yosef Buchman for NIS 200 million. The Dolphinarium complex was owned by Buchman who bought it for $5 million in the late 1980s before encountering difficulties.
Last year "Globes" reported that Drahi was in the process of buying a Tel Aviv building from Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team chairman Shimon Mizrachi for NIS 110 million. In 2022, Drahi sold the Rav Kuk complex in Neve Tzedek for NIS 200 million, seven years after buying it for NIS 133 million from a foreign company.
It was recently reported that Drahi's communications company Altice sold video monetization company Teads to Israeli media content recommendation company Outbrain for $1 billion. Altice is seeking to reduce its debt of tens of billions of dollars which has caused its market cap to shrink by 66%.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 8, 2024.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2024.