| Amot
to buy Tel Aviv's Europe House for $80m
- Europe Israel bought the building from
IBM for $50 million in 1999 and invested
$17 million in renovations Alony
Hetz Property and Investments Ltd. (TASE:
ALHE) subsidiary Amot Investments Ltd.
(TASE:AMOT has signed an MOU with Europe
Israel (MMS) Ltd. to buy Europe House
at 1 Weizmann St., Tel Aviv, for $80 million.
Amot has an exclusive 60-day period to
carry due diligence on the property, which
has 2,000 sq.m. in two commercial floors
topped by a 19,000-sq.m. 20-storey office
block.
Europe Israel, controlled by president
and chairman Motti Zisser has been trying
to sell the property for a long time,
but struggled to find a buyer because
the high asking price gave the property
a return on investment of only 6 percent.
Europe Israel bought the building from
IBM Israel in late 1999 for $50 million,
and invested a further $17 million in
renovations. Unfortunately for the company,
the high-tech and office space bubble
burst shortly afterwards, and it wrote
off $68 million on its investment in 2003
and 2004. The office property market has
revived lately, and rents are rising in
choice locations, such as Tel Aviv's financial
district.
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