The global real estate industry is reaching for the sky, and new figures state that 2010 broke new records for skyscrapers. According to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), four skyscrapers over 400 meters high were completed in 2010, taking the first, fourth, seventh, and ninth places as the world's tallest buildings. There are now 12 skyscrapers over 400 meters high in the world.
Israel has only one building that qualifies as a skyscraper (over 200 meters high) - the Moshe Aviv Tower in Ramat Gan, which was completed in 2000. Despite all the construction going on, and the highly publicized tower, Israel is not taking its place in the world of skyscrapers.
"The ostensibly tall towers that we see in Israel are dwarfs compared with the skyscrapers under construction in the world today. Israel has the know-how to build skyscrapers, and the Israel Engineers Association for Construction and Infrastructure has held conventions and seminars on the subject, in order to improve the know-how in the field says Engineers Association acting chairman and CTBUH Israeli representative Israel David.
David says, however, few developers want to build skyscrapers in Israel. The problem is that a developer who wants to build a skyscraper faces opposition from the Israel Airports Authority and other statutory bodies, "which strangle such initiatives" he says, predicting, "Israeli citizens will therefore continue to look enviously at skyscraper construction around the world, in ostensibly Third World countries, and will only be left with the option of visiting these skyscrapers as tourists."
Since skyscrapers are an excellent solution to a shortage of land, which is growing worse in Israel, they ought to be rising here. Adv. Anat Biran, chairwoman of the Israel Bar Association's planning and building forum, says that Israel's real estate market cannot cope with skyscrapers. "First, the higher a building rises, management and maintenance costs rise even more, rendering such buildings unsuitable for residences for most of the population. They are suited only for the wealthy, which can pay thousands of shekels a month in management and maintenance fees."
Secondly, tall buildings are more suited to new neighborhoods where residents are not worried about saving their vistas, removing the problem of mass objections against the construction of high-rises in older neighborhoods.
Biran says that, currently, local planning and building commissions attach great importance to residents' objections against new plans. She adds that such objections are increasing, with associations set up to wage legal and media battles. She cites the success of battles against the high-rises planned for the old Assuta compound and the Frishman-Dizengoff lot in Tel Aviv, which resulted in the number of floors approved for the buildings to be reduced.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 8, 2011
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