The location of the development center being planned in Israel by Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) will influence the country's commercial real estate market. Inevitably, the high tech park where Apple's new facility is located will become more attractive due to the presence of one of the world's most desirable brands.
For its part, Apple will want to be located as close as possible to the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, the country's center of know-how in chips and semiconductors.
Haifa is eager to host Apple. Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav said, "The future arrival of Apple in Haifa would be a very great celebration and we would embrace them in the city. We would go a long way to help them and do everything to make their landing in Haifa as soft, as inviting and as sympathetic as possible. Apple has not contacted the municipality but the municipality is making every effort to make contact with Apple. From Haifa's point of view it would be a very important strategic contribution."
The obvious choice would be the Matam High Tech park at the southern entrance to Haifa, where Apple would find itself very much at home among neighbors such as Intel, IBM, Microsoft, Yahoo and many more international brands. Bayside Land Corp. Ltd.(Gav Yam) (TASE: BYSD1), which owns Matam, declined to comment on the subject.
Another option for Apple could be the Yokneam industrial zone south of Haifa which houses such companies as Marvell, Mellanox Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq:MLNX; TASE:MLNX), Given Imaging Ltd. (Nasdaq: GIVN; TASE: GIVN), EZchip Semiconductor Ltd. (Nasdaq: EZCH; TASE:EZCH) and Medtronic.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 18, 2011
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