For the first time: the mayors who renew Israel - met on one stage.
A precedent summit meeting took place this morning (Wednesday) at Beit Zioni America in Tel Aviv, as part of the Media Real Estate CEOs Club.
During the event, which focused on the hottest issue in the field of construction today in the shadow of the war, no less than 13 elected mayors from the north, Sharon, the center and the Shefala took to the stage - who showed up from the seven in October alongside the director of the governmental authority for urban renewal for one important goal: to speed up the "Dome The iron of the citizens" - the urban renewal. The main message of the event: "We came to strengthen", MMD means protection, and only evacuation-construction will lead to a mass result.
The conference, which took place under the direction of real estate reporter and commentator, Ofer Petersburg, was broadcast live on the Walla website, allowing guests to enjoy an innovative solution for sharing Photos using artificial intelligence for facial recognition, through the Izme AI application. This is a new system that is being staged for the first time at Real Media events, and allows each guest at the conference to receive their own digital album with all the photos in which they appeared.
These are the main headlines from the big event:
"The MMD is the second circle of defense, after the Iron Dome"
"Thank you to Media Real Estate, and to Ofer Petersburg, who host us again and again to discuss the most important issues in the construction and infrastructure industry in particular, and in the country in general. It's fun to see people from all construction professions here, in addition to the many mayors found here,"
Raul Sargo, president of the Association of Builders Contractors of the Country
, opened the conference.
Sargo goes on to say that "the issue of urban renewal touches everything, it's much more than residences, it's security, commerce, infrastructures and also a lot of money for the city coffers, which ultimately returns to the citizens by improving their quality of life. Yesterday the consumer price index was published and we surprisingly see that apartment prices in peripheral areas are rising, in Haifa, in the south. The reason is that people want to buy a new apartment with MMD, want security. The missile attacks and what we experienced last night is unimaginable. You can't always build on the fact that an iron dome will stop everything. The MMD is the second iron dome, the second circle of security. The importance of urban renewal first and foremost is the protection of human life. When mayors do not approve such projects, they need to understand the meaning. This is one of the things we take with us from the current war."
"I will finish with another important point related to the issue of the workers at the construction sites. The process of bringing in the foreign workers from the state is a shame and disgrace. They have been dealing with this for over half a year, and so far about 2,000 foreign workers have arrived in total. We lack tens of thousands. The Palestinians will come to work in Israel, let there be no doubts, it will probably be after Passover, we have already contacted the local government center on the issue so that it does not happen as happened at the beginning of the process when mayors closed construction sites because they were afraid to employ Palestinian workers with permits in their cities. This time we will solve it together with the mayors, we need to increase the security of the residents and this cannot come at the expense of the construction, because we are all affected by it," Sergo concludes.
"Over 1,000 ultra-Orthodox workers have been recruited into the industry since the war"
David Yahamili, CEO of the Foundation for the Encouragement and Development of the Construction Industry in Israel
, continued Sargo's words and announced that, in a precedent-setting manner, these days over 1,000 ultra-Orthodox workers are being recruited into the construction industry, as part of a pilot by the Contractors Association and the Foundation for Encouragement with the Ministry of Labor to train 2,000 Israeli workers for the industry The construction is in the first stage.
According to Yahami, "I believe that after the holiday we will complete the recruitment of 2,000 workers, and as soon as the pilot is successful, we will increase the numbers significantly. In the end, we must minimize the risk and also bring a lot of Israeli workers to the construction industry. It should be remembered that this is one of the most stable industries in the economy because it is subject to only one parameter, the birth rate. In the next 30 years we will have to double the State of Israel, another 3 million apartments, and that's before I even talk about infrastructure, employment, transportation and more."
"We are talking here about an industry that is going to continue to lead the economy in any case. So I hope we will survive this crisis, I appeal to the Israeli government, war is not only security and the army, it is also the economy. We cannot neglect the construction and infrastructure industry. We must bring the The foreign workers as soon as possible, to give budgets and all the incentives needed for this issue in order to preserve the industry, and from there continue to grow when we get out of the crisis, also in the framework of urban renewal that we are dealing with today", concludes Yahami.
First panel: Urban renewal in the Center and the Sharon
The first panel of the conference hosted on stage five mayors from the Central and Sharon regions, who came to talk about urban renewal in their cities: Givatayim Mayor Ran Konik; Mayor of Bat Yam, Zvika Brot; Mayor of Kfar Saba, Rafi Sa'ar; Head of the Kadima-Zoran Council, Keren Green; The mayor of Ra'anana, Haim Broida. Also sitting on stage was Gili Feiglin, VP of Urban Renewal Tzemach Hamerman, as the representative of the contractors who build in these cities.
The guest moderator was
Dana Sander, CEO of Arno Capital
, who opened the panel with an optimistic point for the rest of the conference: "We accompany dozens of entrepreneurs in the field of urban renewal , and I can say that we do see some progress and understanding on the part of the authorities since the start of the war on the importance of urban renewal, there is a desire to help compared to the difficulty that was before working with the authorities. There is light at the end of the tunnel."
"There won't always be certainty, these are the rules of the game and you have to accept them"
Givataim is an example of a city that is renovating in a big way today, and in the past it was talked about that it did not want to build. Can you explain the change in the city?
Ran Konik, Mayor of Givatayim:
"I've been saying the same things for 10 years, the concept was to do TMA projects in Givatayim, and I said that TMA is not urban renewal, it's building renewal, so some misconception came out that Givataim doesn't want to build. There is no other city where every meter is planned like in Givatayim, and today you can see it. We are the most densely populated city in Israel after Bnei Brak, on an area the size of the Safari in Ramat Gan Haim, 64 thousand people, so those who understand a little and have no interests know that TMA for Givatayim is a thing Bad. There are very large plans for urban renewal in the city today, and to your question Ofer, we are doing it with a proper planning vision, areas for public and educational buildings, and everything that is needed. Givatayim in a decade will change its face, it will be a modern city, built to height, with solutions for public buildings and education."
Furthermore, Konik says, "every profession has its own rules of the game. On the issue of construction and urban renewal there will not always be certainty, these are the rules of the game and you have to accept them. For example, a mayor sometimes changes and the successor thinks differently. It's not just with the municipality, the developers don't give 100% certainty either, it simply doesn't exist, but that's not what's holding back the construction, what's holding it back is the lack of manpower, the district committees and sometimes also the tenants who have to be convinced to agree to the projects."
Gili Feiglin, VP Urban renewal leader Tzemach Hamerman
, who was the representative of the contractors on this panel, responded to Konik's words and said that even though these are the rules of the game, according to what Konik claims, the mayors should do everything they can to promote planning certainty: "You have to understand that the biggest problem In urban renewal in all cities it is the uncertainty of the plans. From the moment you enter the tender until the moment you win, many years pass, and you can't move forward from that point, you have to redo everything despite the good will, and you as mayors have to understand that you have the power in your hands to release these barriers. It has been stalling the projects for years, creating uncertainty."
Kadima-Zoran is the first rural town to be renewed. How do you increase the population and still manage to leave the settlement by car in a reasonable time?
Keren Green, mayor of Kadima-Zoran:
"We had a successful first project that gives hope. Houses that were slums have been turned into modern houses, and the residents are overjoyed. Our top priority is urban renewal, it's about historical justice for the residents who live there, it improves the face of the settlement, We are adding housing units, in the next plan we are talking about 1,000 housing units. Regarding the issue of transportation, every construction should be holistic, looked at at the systemic level and not per project, and that is how it is with us."
"The district committees are unnecessary, they only get in the way"
Haim Broida, Mayor of Ra'anana:
"Nowadays, we mainly take the old neighborhoods with very large gaps compared to the new ones. We destroy the old and rebuild, narrowing the gaps. My goal for this is to maintain the quality of the city. Urban renewal is not just real estate , this is social news. The goal is for people to be able to live in apartments that are really reinforced against missiles and earthquakes. This is a national, personal matter and my commitment as mayor."
Rafi Sa'ar, mayor of Kfar Saba,
continued his neighbor's words: "Kfar Saba is an old city, 120 years old, and carefully planned. You have to understand that we are in a race against time because at any moment an earthquake can come and everything will collapse, on the other hand there is a need for optimal planning in the city and you cannot do things recklessly. We have several neighborhoods that to modernize is a social project, aging neighborhoods with buildings built in the 50s of the last century."
Sa'ar went on to say that "I'm going to drop a bomb here - the district committees are unnecessary and only get in the way. In the last 5 years we have only had struggles with them and they are only disturbing. There is always a long argument about a few meters here or there, because they are sure that they know better than us what is good for our city, and think that they manage the area. I estimate that all the mayors here would agree with me. A mayor knows best what is good for his city."
"Contrary to claims, I don't know of a project that is delayed in the municipality for 10-15 years"
Bat Yam is one of the densest and most developing cities, the demand for it is only increasing, and you navigate between all of this. Tell us a little about it
Zvika Brot, mayor of Bat Yam:
Indeed, we are one of the leading cities in urban renewal in Israel today. The city has built itself up to know in recent years, but there are also problems with this. Signature contractors approach the tenants and make promises that in the end cannot be implemented in the municipality, and then it seems as if the municipality is stalling the projects. It's a problem we're trying to solve, we're working on a comprehensive plan for urban renewal, I hope it will give the tenants the same certainty they lack.
" They sign it at the door, long before it reaches the municipality, you have to remember that the city engineer is the one who promotes the issue, it is not wise to come to the municipality and say I have signed tenants, let's build a tower here."
One on one with the CEO of the Governmental Authority for Urban Renewal
Later in the conference, in a one-on-one conversation with
the CEO of the Governmental Authority for Urban Renewal, attorney Elazar Bamberger
, the interviewee chose to start by examining the result: "In 2023, building permits were received for 50,000 apartments in Israel. With the progress of the market, and the understanding of the need for urban renewal, the main The city has really internalized the need, accordingly the response has also improved and there is a big push from the authorities."
"There is a broad deployment of cities in Israel to promote urban renewal. In my eyes, there has been a very great improvement in the work of the planning institutions. I have a representative in every sub-committee for urban renewal, we provide an open channel to the authorities on any subject in the field, and we also know how to help shorten planning procedures."
To the question of whether we will see the revitalization in the periphery, Bamberger replied: "We have a move that is going to be realized in the south and the north, a lot of money is invested in the revitalization of the periphery. We created a tool called framework agreements during which we transfer about half a billion shekels to the authorities to renew, this is money that goes to the local authority to finance all The development needs for those regeneration complexes in these cities. There is one problem that I am not able to solve, it is not in my field and it was discussed here - lack of manpower in the planning committees in the planning institutions. We need a lot of people there, this can lead to a huge push for the approval of the projects."
Second panel: urban renewal in the northern cities
The second panel of the conference hosted on stage four mayors from the northern region, who came to talk about urban renewal in their cities: Mayor of Kiryat Yam, David Ibn Tzur; Mayor of Yakneam, Roman Peres; Mayor of Tirat Carmel, Dodo Cohen; Mayor of Nesher, Roy Levy; Also sitting on the stage was Yishai Roth, deputy to the CEO of the Shovel Group, as a representative of the contractors who build in these cities.
The guest moderator was
attorney Moshe Yonai, partner and founder of Rolf Yonai & Co.
, who opened the panel: "The north is waking up and I think there are mayors here One of the leaders in the field of urban renewal. We all feel that it is moving, not fast enough, but there is a shift."
"We're not Gush Dan, we're a small, green city and we'll keep it that way"
Yakneam has become a type of Gush Dan in terms of development and employment, but in terms of regeneration it is not working. What's the story there?
The Mayor of Yakneam, Roman Peres
: "We believe in urban renewal, a year and a half ago we established a renewal administration. In the middle of May, I believe that the first plan for deposit will be launched, at the same time we are promoting a master plan for urban renewal, basically from the entrance to the city to Ramat Yakneam, where we are really doing work Good and professional with the help of the Urban Renewal Authority. I want to emphasize something, we are not Gush Dan, we are a small and green city surrounded by nature and we will preserve the character of the city."
A mayor who dared to make his city the national capital of regeneration is Kiryat Yam. I see the potential and ask: where have you been all these years?
Mayor of Kiryat Yam, David Ibn Zur:
"What happened is that in the years of the large immigration to Israel over the years, they built housing along the sea line, which today they are simply crumbling and every Monday and Thursday I receive a report about a house that is about to collapse, and we as a municipality have to strengthen it according to regulations Safety. Since we don't have land reserves at all, Kiryat Yam is our best solution. We will emphasize that 50 thousand people from all over the globe live on urban renewal One did not believe it and it sounded like science fiction to them, because of all kinds of promises and nothing happened. We took it into our hands and turned it into a renewal project, and today we are promoting renewal along the sea
line "What is hindering this is only Rami, which continues to trade land that exists within the various neighborhoods in order to market the balance itself, but there is no balance because the contractor needs to get something. I gave up the improvement levies just to promote this issue of urban renewal, I also asked for it RMI to give up the surplus land in favor of the developer in order to have economic viability, and here we need to press RMI. The government should do this in order to promote renewal wherever there is no economic viability, in the next 10 years Kiryat Yam will be a new city, without crumbling neighborhoods."
"Our problem as entrepreneurs is that there is no regulated program on the subject, they are driving us crazy"
Yishai Roth, deputy to the CEO of the Shuval Group
, explained in the panel the difficulty of the entrepreneurs in working with the authorities: "We come to the municipality and sit with the city engineer and they tell us to do this and that, we start acting before we promise things to the tenants, we keep making progress and then the municipality cheats on us The hand-breaks, they tell us we need a kindergarten, then they regret it and say we don't actually need a school, we need a synagogue, they drive us crazy. We as the Shovel Group are investing tens of millions in the issue of urban renewal throughout the country, and we do not see the horizon that something is really happening here, that there is some kind of change. I meet with dozens of entrepreneurs a week who tell us the same thing. What we are asking the mayors of the cities - let's make plans so that we know how to realize the urban renewal, it's fine even if you say it won't be here at all, this is your confrontation with the residents, but only so that we know and that we don't just invest money and time. You need to know how to plan ahead at least 20 years."
Roth added on the topic of urban renewal: "A few years ago I met with the Minister of Construction and Housing and we had a friendly conversation, he asked for tips as someone who has been involved in urban renewal for years. I told him that the next war in Israel will be about this issue. A first earthquake that will be of dangerous intensity, we will see tens if not thousands of dead here, God forbid. We invest billions in the security of our country, in missiles, in the protection of our citizens, but we do not protect our citizens in the matter of earthquakes. And this is our next war."
"It is forbidden to solve a historical injustice with a future injustice"
Later in the panel,
the Mayor of Nesher, Roi Levy,
spoke : "The Urban Renewal Authority is doing a good job in encompassing the whole event. In Nesher we implemented an urban renewal chapter, but many things change in real time, and RMI also comes and makes it difficult for us to promote it. During the 5 years that I have been mayor, I hear about it in every forum on the subject and nothing has changed. We are the ones who end up dealing with the residents."
Mayor of Tirat Carmel, Dodo Cohen
, added: "I took office two weeks and two days ago, urban renewal for me is one of the biggest challenges I wish to promote during the term. There is a tremendous need and potential here, the Carmel Castle is built on the infrastructure of the state's past, thousands of housing units that are crumbling. One of the main problems I identify is planning uncertainty."
"I come from a place that plans ahead, a comprehensive plan for 20 and 30 years ahead. I want to establish factors that do not exist, such as a strategic planning committee, which will correspond with committees and plan ahead on issues of transportation, infrastructure, etc. The contractors and developers must obviously make a profit, but must also consider the quality of life of the residents, historical injustice must not be solved with future injustice. The most important things are also building infrastructure and roads before building thousands of apartments. Likewise, in terms of commercial and employment areas, culture, culinary and leisure, this is something that must be promoted in the Carmel Castle," Dahan concludes.
Third panel: Urban renewal in the Ono Valley and the Shefala
The first panel of the conference hosted on stage five mayors from the Ono Valley and the Shefala region: the mayor of Or Yehuda, Liat Shohat; Mayor of Yehud Monoson, Amnon Saad; Mayor of Lod, Yair Rabivo; Mayor of Ramla, Michael Vidal; The representative of the contractors on this panel was Gal Castel, Deputy CEO of Oron Real Estate.
The guest moderator was
attorney Nurit Cohen, partner and founder of the KDC office
, which represents thousands of tenants in urban renewal projects across the country. In her words at the opening of the panel: "I bring a slightly different angle, that of apartment owners. The voice of the apartment owners is not the economic voice, but a social and human voice. Everyone wants a better life, we all want protection and security."
The mayor of Or Yehuda, Liat Shochat
, continued: "When I took office, I looked with envy at Yehud and Kiryat Ono, who ran forward in urban renewal and we were left behind. I have been in the position for 10 years and today we have 2 projects in progress and several more projects in planning. Thousands of housing units, some in areas that are not allowed To live in them according to the law because of the proximity to Israel, etc. I take advantage of the capabilities of the HTML compared to others who see it as a predatory tool, and wait for the new construction in the renewal of the old parts of the city. I look at this as historical justice for our residents, it is easiest to develop new construction and bring in new residents, but I come to serve the residents of Or Yehuda that they don't have protection, that's why we established the unit for community work in the municipality to make the knowledge of urban renewal accessible to residents."
The city of Ramla has a mixed population, how does this affect the promotion of projects?
The Mayor of Ramla, Michael Vidal: It cannot be said that it is difficult for us to promote because we have 6 plans approved by the district committee, 24,000 housing units planned for urban renewal, 7,000 approved, before the end of 2024 we will start demolishing buildings. We have old buildings that have cracks in the stairwells, the tenants can't even protect themselves in the stairwells, we are doing our best in Ramla to promote renewal, and I personally went to meetings in mixed neighborhoods at the level of 50% Jews and 50% Arabs and talked to them personally to promote the the issue and create credibility among the tenants. In the end, everyone wants a better life. There is a big change in the district committee as far as I'm concerned, and I welcome that."
"Plan inspectors demanded a salary of NIS 62,000 a month, higher than a mayor"
In the city of Yehud, quite a few urban renewal projects were also approved. You surround Israel and you were also a target in the last missile attack, in your city there are a lot of early plans in the center of the old city, and the city is going to be crowded. What are you going to do about it?
Mayor Yehud Monoson, Amnon Saad
: "You ask about density, but there is Only one side in this issue, the security of the residents. We are constantly making progress with the complexes for the sake of the tenants, but there is great difficulty, also with RMI and the planning institutions. In the umbrella agreement we signed, they promised us additional land up to 15 percent. So there are complexes where we told developers to plan without additional land or you will not have a project, and in some cases It works, but I have a fairly large complex in the city that has already been allocated a slot in the roof agreement in the new western neighborhood with additional land, and it is stuck because of RMI for an obvious reason: they don't really want to give additional land."
Saad continues and says that "the problem is manpower critical. We do not have program testers in the engineering department. We are unable to recruit testers, there are many standards and we don't have the manpower. We approached an
outsourcing tender, and they demanded a salary of NIS 62,000 a
month
, higher than the mayor's, it's crazy."
For the event at the moment of realization, we have three-four projects that have now killed them at RMI. Another gap is the small synagogue that needs to be evacuated, the club for the elderly, etc., in the end it is based on sentiment, the grandmother who does not want to sign because she is comfortable where she is, this is the biggest challenge every day. As of today, from the moment urban renewal is approved, you have to count 10 years to prepare the entire process until the start of construction."
"We have reached a situation where we simply prefer not to invest energy in certain municipalities"
Gal Castel, deputy to the CEO of Oron
, representative of the entrepreneurs on the third panel, summed up the event: "You can say today that on every stage in the real estate field, the main discourse is urban renewal. All our weight today is there, and life there is not easy. I think it happened Something in October that many areas in the country need to draw far-reaching decisions from a security, economic, and public point of view. The country needs to stop and decide what it is doing next. One of the areas is also the urban renewal, in which it needs to change the rules of the game , but now it is even more understandable that it should be above everything else. Unfortunately, a large part of the authorities are still there before October 7th and do not understand the magnitude of the event. We have reached a situation where we simply prefer not to invest energy in certain municipalities, because it is impossible to move forward there Authorities are sorry for the citizens who live in their cities. Beyond the bureaucracy that has always been there, there are things that will not change, projects will always be accompanied by uncertainty, and reality sometimes slaps you in the face."
"What needs to happen in order for entrepreneurs to approach the municipality?", Kastel replies to the panel moderator's question, "a basic thing, manpower. In the end, no matter how hard we work to promote, in the end we land on a program tester who has a lot on her mind and it stuck with her. There is There are many more things that need to be fixed in the process, and it starts there."