Canadian-Jewish businessman Gerald Schwartz, founder of the Heseg Foundation, a scholarship fund for IDF soldiers with no family in Israel, and owner of a large holding company in Canada, purchased on Sunday two adjacent three-storey buildings on the corner of Bezalel Yaffe St. and Rothschild Blvd. for NIS 100 million, not including taxes, betterment tax, or VAT.
The two buildings, which are marked for preservation, were acquired from a number of private parties, who inherited them. The building at 55 Rothschild Blvd. was purchased for NIS 60 million, and the building at 7 Bezalel Yaffe St. was purchased for NIS 40 million. The two buildings have a total of NIS 1,000 sq.m. in built-up space, and are currently zoned for residence. The building at 55 Rothschild St., called Valkovsky House, was constructed in 1932, and Hebrew poet Shaul Tchernichovsky once lived there.
Negotiations with the owners took many months; it took the purchasers four years just to locate the owners. The two properties also have transferable rights worth NIS 10 million.
Aviv Bushinsky, Schwartz's representative in Israel, handled the negotiations for the purchase, and the legal aspect of the purchase was handled by the Koren Grodberg & Co. law firm, while Adv. Medan Hagai from the Hartavi-Bornstein-Basson & Co. law firm represented the sellers. Bushinsky said that the future use of the properties had not yet been determined at this stage.
This is not Schwartz's first deal on Rothschild Blvd.; he already owns two buildings on the street: the Heseg Fund building at 46 Rothschild Blvd, which he currently uses for his philanthropic activity in Israel, and the nearby building at 48 Rothschild Blvd., Neffrastag House, on which a boutique hotel was built in partnership with R2M, a company that also owns other hotels, such as the Montefiore Hotel.
Schwartz and his wife, Heather Reissman, are leading members of the Canadian business community and among the most prominent supporters of the local Jewish community. He is the founder, CEO, and chairman of the Onex company, a holding company that manages properties worth $22 billion. She is owner and CEO of Indigo, a large chain of bookstores and music stores in Canada.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 6, 2015
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