Yerushalayim Center Planned

The accord will give Moriah, a development company controlled by the municipality, responsibility for carrying out the plans, which are expected to cost the national treasury about NIS 1.2 billion shekels.

Actual work on the project, which is to be built near the western entrance to the city in the area of the Central Bus Station and the city’s main convention center, is slated to begin within a few months. With easy access to the Tel Aviv highway and train station now under construction, the new center is expected to attract jobs and generate significant amounts of property tax revenue for the municipality.

It will contain 731,000 square yards of commercial space in eight towers. By comparison, the giant Azrieli towers in Tel Aviv have 150,000 square yards of space.

The complex should include 2,000 hotel rooms and also call for the expansion of the Central Zionist Archives and of Binyanei Ha’uma.

In a related development, the Yerushalayim Planning and Building Committee late last week approved plans for Shaare Zedek Medical Center to nearly double the land area of the hospital site from 11.4 to 20.3 acres. The plans will also enable Shaare Zedek, which is the fastest-growing hospital in the country, to triple its floor space to 283,000 square yards.

The project calls for the construction of three new buildings in stages, including a patient room tower. The plans were developed to meet the hospital’s projected needs until 2035.

This article appeared in print on page 6 of the May 15th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.