Sources inform ''Globes'' that the Israel Land Administration (ILA) will publish a new tender for the Me'uyan Soreq lot in Rishon LeZion after the courts cancelled the tender won by IKEA Israel. The new tender will be based on a new assessment of the lot, which will take into account the possible rezoning of the lot from light industry to commercial use, as well as the building already built by IKEA Israel on the site.
The ILA dismissed an appeal by Gazit-Globe Ltd. (TASE: GLOB), which had made the second highest bid for the lot in the original tender, to be declared the winner. In a separate development, the State Prosecutor has filed summations with the Supreme Court on behalf of the ILA and the Central Regional Planning and Building Commission asking the court to dismiss an appeal by IKEA Israel against the verdict by the Tel Aviv District Court.
The summation implies that the state had changed its position regarding the validity of the conduct of IKEA Israel and the Rishon LeZion municipality over the lot. The state told the Tel Aviv District Court, "The ILA tenders committee acted with complete transparency, equitably, and with no bias, and no flaw in its decision that justifies legal intervention."
In April, the ILA ordered Iris Hagilboa Construction and Development Ltd., a subsidiary of Bronfman Fisher Investments Ltd. which owns the IKEA Israel franchise, that it must vacate its lot in Rishon LeZion by mid-July. The ILA had not decided at that time whether to hold a new tender for the lot. The ILA was leaning towards recording the value of the building IKEA Israel had built on the lot as part of a new tender.
The ILA decision and the new Regional Outline Plan are two major developments since the ruling by the Tel Aviv District Court, which the state believes warrants a new tender for the Me'uyan Soreq lot.
Adv. Aner Helman of the State Prosecutor's Office said, "We're no longer talking about an empty lot, but about a completely different property. It is now a developed lot occupied by a huge building thousands of square meters in built-up space. There is a decision to deposit a plan for the lot, which if approved, will rezone it."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 29, 2008
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