More than once we come across a new and prestigious office building whose only drawback is a lack of parking standards. A phenomenon that on the face of it is puzzling, but the reason for it is very simple. If we take a bird's-eye view of the facelift that cities are undergoing, especially in the center, we can find one common denominator between them: the proximity to metro stations or future light rail stations.
So where are the projects worth getting to know, and how long will it be before the promise of access to them is fulfilled? We embarked on an imaginary journey on the future train following the route of the metro and light rail. Did you tighten your belts? We begin.
Narrow and named Transport
150 kilometers, three lines, 24 municipalities and 109 stations – all these are supposed to provide a response to the chaotic transportation reality that characterizes Israel today. The necessity of the metro project has never been higher; Israel leads the ranking of countries suffering from traffic congestion in the West, and according to the OECD, in 2019 the loss of GDP as a result of traffic jams amounted to no less than NIS 20 billion.
80-90% of trips in motorized vehicles in major metropolitan cities (Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa) are made in private vehicles. In addition, according to the State Comptroller's report for 2022, 87% of all public transportation users are bus passengers (about 767 million passengers per year), and only 8% travel on Israel Railways (68 million). Only 5% use the light rail, and only this figure can give an order of magnitude to the unimaginable congestion that exists on Israel's roads, due to private car users and bus passengers alike.
In fact, Israel's transportation infrastructure has not been able to keep up with demand. While in other advanced countries there has been a process of transition from the concept of "mobility" with the private vehicle as the designer of the urban space – which led, among other things, to "accessibility", which is the possibility of reaching maximum public resources (employment, commerce and leisure) with minimum effort and harm to the surrounding area – in Israel the process happened significantly late. The result: constant traffic jams and enormous environmental damage, which has become one of the burning topics in the discourse on global warming and climate change.
Tel Aviv, Photo: Shutterstrok,
Still, there is light at the end of the tunnel. In the coming weeks, the first red line of the light rail is expected to begin operation, after a "slight delay" of five years. The Red Line, known as "The Dankel", is expected to carry 70 million passengers each year and will become the backbone of the mass transit system in metropolitan Tel Aviv.
Mass Transit System Photo: Netta,
However, while the Tel Aviv light rail project is progressing, albeit with turtle steps, the metro project is currently experiencing a blow to the wing and a big question mark looms over it, in light of Transportation Minister Miri Regev's decision to remove it from NTA and transfer it to another government company. The minister explained her dramatic decision by the fact that NTA exceeded the timetable by about a year and a half and with a budget of about NIS 3 billion.
Urban planning in the interim period
Urban planning is now forced to function under conditions of uncertainty. New city building plans include fewer parking standards in residential and employment projects located in close proximity to future mass transit stations, although in practice some projects will take many years before the light rail or metro will operate and provide a response to the population.
Why is the late early? The answer to this is that the planning committees' policy is intended, among other things, to "educate" the public to use private vehicles less, as part of the solution to the problem of traffic jams. If they continue to plan projects today with the same high parking standards, the move to switch to public transportation will certainly fail.
View of Jaffa Street Quarter to the entrance to the city of It Ease Photo : (Simulation) Totem,
Studies on the impact of the metro on residential and office properties in North America have revealed that properties within walking distance of the train station, up to 500 meters, are valued between 3% and 40% higher than properties further away. Even when environmental hazards created by the railway were taken into account, the value of apartments and offices still rose immeasurably.
The world of employment is also expected to change its face due to the planned mass transit system. New employment centers rely on the metro route, and Bank of Israel Governor Prof. Amir Yaron described this well when he warned last year that "the lack of legislation delays the implementation of the project, and this has considerable implications with regard to the certainty of businesses, investors, and planning and construction bodies in the central region." The Governor also suggested examining ways to reward execution companies for meeting and bringing forward deadlines, recognizing the dramatic importance of the project.
Next stop: Office
We will start our journey on the red line of the light rail. The news: In Tel Aviv-Yafo there are 12 stations of the Red Line, while in Jaffa alone there are 6 stations on the route of Jerusalem Boulevard, along an upper section of 2.8 km where the stations will be located about 500 meters apart.
The Red Line is expected to affect three main employment areas: the "City" of Bat Yam, near the main exit station of the Red Line, which will become a real estate attraction for residential, office and commerce in light of the shortening of the trip to Tel Aviv to only 10 minutes; Jerusalem Boulevard in Jaffa, which will become Israel's "Ramblas" and will include a walking, recreational, catering and residential avenue; and the Jabotinsky Route in Ramat Gan in Petah Tikva, which has begun to change its face in recent years and discover signs of flowering, mainly in the section adjacent to the Ramat Gan Stock Exchange complex (Bnei Brak Business Center) and in the Kiryat Aryeh and Ramat Siv industrial zones in Petah Tikva.
We will continue with the train and reach the eastern side of the Ayalon Highway, where the EAST&TLV project was built by Blue Square Real Estate, Sufrin Group, Weiss Group, GF Real Estate and Bolthaup Investments. The project includes the construction of 201 new apartments, and its revenues are estimated at NIS 1.4 billion. The project combines residential, employment and commerce with a built-up area of about 68,6 square meters, covering an area of 5.40 dunams. The complex will include two towers that will rise to 33 and <> floors.
Tzachi Sufrin, controlling shareholder and Vice Chairman of the Sufrin Group: "The proximity to the light rail and metro route make the location attractive for all types of population. Both for young people who are looking to stay in the city at reasonable prices, for those improving housing and investors, and for people looking to live near the train or close to their place of work."
Not far away, between Yigal Alon Street and the Basron neighborhood, another mega-project is taking shape. The Tel Aviv Local Committee approved the construction of three 47-story residential buildings and two employment buildings of the same size, as part of the "Best Phase B" project of a real estate building. The project will include 400 residential units and about 125,690 square meters of commercial and employment space, and is based on the high transportation accessibility along the Yigal Alon route, including proximity to future metro and light rail stations. The value of the project is estimated at NIS <> million.
Meanwhile, the road is currently being paved for the construction of four additional towers in the area in the Tara compound near Azrieli, after the National Council rejected an appeal filed against the plan about a year ago.
The building plan, which is based on two future metro stations that will be built at Yigal Alon Junction and Peace Road, includes 660 housing units in towers of 40 to 65 floors, which will combine residential, employment and commercial areas. It spreads over 23 dunams at the corner of Moses and Yigal Alon streets, bordering the Ayalon Highway, on the site of the Terra factory controlled by the Wertheim family until a few years ago.
One person worth listening to for his opinion on the metro being built in Gush Dan is engineer Tom Smith, global director of property and buildings at the international engineering giant WSP, which built the metro in Qatar.
He recently visited Israel to examine integration into local projects. "A lot of Metro projects can be on paper for a long time, and from the moment someone starts and says let's get started, 8 to 10 years isn't too bad."
Asked if he believed Israel could have a metro system in 10 years, he replied: "Why not? London had just finished the Elizabeth Line, and it took about 10 years from the start, although much of the design work could have been done beforehand, when they decided to free up capital to do it. What's going to be interesting with your new metro is the fact that actually a lot of it is all around – I mean there's the metro, but there's the work in and around the stations, transportation-oriented development.
We need to revitalize the areas where the metro is, create more housing, better parks. I think people often think of metro as a piece of infrastructure, but in fact, if you look at infrastructure around the world, it usually acts as a catalyst for neighborhood renewal and opportunity creation."
Exchange Ramat Gan's Azorim and Tower Insurance Photo : (Simulation) 3division,
If we continue driving towards the neighboring city, we will see another successful model - the Ramat-Gan Exchange project in the stock exchange complex, which includes two towers that combine employment and luxury living near the Abba Hillel train station, overlooking the last test drives that take place every week on the light rail. The towers are being built by Azorim in cooperation with Migdal Insurance.
From Ramat Gan we will continue to Rishon LeZion's metro station. In about fifteen minutes (without traffic jams, have we already said?) we will reach an interesting and precedent-setting project that has been dubbed "the Israeli Hudson Yards".
, The Israeli Hudson Yards Simulation - NTA.
This is the first plan of its kind in Israel, approved by the National Planning and Building Council, according to which a residential neighborhood will be built above the metro depot, that is, above the M1 metro line operating complex, on an area of about 400 dunams in the "Rishonim" complex in the southeast of the city. About 2,700 housing units, commercial and employment areas will be built in the complex, in addition to public buildings and open spaces. There are several examples of such complexes around the world, the most famous of which is the one that gave the project its name, Hudson Yards in New York.
There is an intention to implement this model in Jerusalem as well, above the Light Rail's Depot 25, but the uses above it are intended for government buildings only.
Suburban and named Employment
And despite the grandiose projects we presented earlier, it seems that the real news is actually in the suburban cities. These cities are expected to completely change their face as a result of the metro and light rail project. The light rail's Purple Line is expected in 2026 to connect Kiryat Ono, Yehud and Or Yehuda to central Tel Aviv, via Bar Ilan University, Sheba Hospital and the Carmel Market. The new line is expected to join the tremendous transformation that the city center of Kiryat Ono and Or Yehuda are already undergoing.
We will start by driving eastward from Mesovim Junction in Tel Aviv, which attests to the tremendous change taking place in the area. Thousands of housing units and hundreds of thousands of square meters for employment will be built in the coming years from the Neve Ayalon area to Savyon Junction between Or Yehuda and Kiryat Ono, to the areas of Kiryat Savyonim, Ganei Yehuda and Magshimim adjacent to Yehud-Monosson. This is the largest construction reserve in Gush Dan for the coming years.
Football field in Savyon Kiryat Ono Business Park Photo : (Simulation) Tom Brill,
We will stop for a moment and linger in the Ono Valley, an ideal example of a city that is expected to undergo a makeover with two future metro stations and its location on the purple line of the light rail. The Ono Valley is already abundant in residential habitation and has many residents who immigrated to it from Tel Aviv, but the new transportation lines will make it even more desirable. The current situation is that close to 80% of the workforce in the Ono Valley is employed outside the city (mainly in Tel Aviv, Petah Tikva and Ramat Gan), and travel is usually carried out by private vehicle and involves many hours of traffic jams. With the connection of the Ono Valley to the mass transportation system, it is expected to prepare to absorb many new residents.
Live in Tel Aviv, work in Or Yehuda
It sounds almost imaginary. Is it possible in the coming years for people to live in Tel Aviv, Israel's largest employment metropolis, but work outside it?
Well, the metro and light rail project can revolutionize this area as well. The mass transportation system will also serve workers in the opposite direction, as Kiryat Ono and Or Yehuda plan to add millions of square meters of employment in the coming years, in accordance with population growth.
O Park Employment and Commercial Complex - Photo (Simulation) Bar Orian Architects,
The main project that is taking shape is the Opark complex in Or Yehuda, which is expected to include over one million square meters of employment and commercial space. The complex is located near Ben Gurion Airport, and is expected to house leading high-tech and bio-tech companies, companies with ties to Ben Gurion Airport, governmental, financial companies, banks, malls and more. In addition, cooperative business complexes, green tech areas and leisure and cultural centers will be built. These lands are part of a comprehensive plan of about 1,670 dunams, which is about a quarter of the current area of the city.
Two residential neighborhoods with more than 5,000 housing units will be built near the park – the Bayit BaPark neighborhood, which was populated starting this year, and the Neve Ayalon neighborhood. In addition, a 600-dunam green park will be built, which is expected to be the second largest in Gush Dan, after Ganei Yehoshua in Tel Aviv.
And what about the cities of the Sharon? In this geographic sector as well, there is development in the form of large-scale changes in Ra'anana, with its future connection to the metro. According to the plan, in Ra'anana's northern employment zone, two metro stations and a bus terminal will be built, and an expansion of Highway 4, located near the employment zone, will be carried out, which will include additional public transportation lanes and bus stops. Subsequently, the Local Deposit Committee recently approved three land-intensive plans in the northern employment zone, which offer additional rights for mixed uses of employment, commerce, hotels and public buildings, totaling about 175,000 square meters of land. In addition, 2,000 parking spaces in underground parking lots were approved.
Cities are undergoing a facelift
After a little refreshment and a stop for reinforced coffee in Ra'anana, we headed west, to Herzliya.
Herzliya Imaging Employment Area - Derman and Raquel Architects,
Only recently did the Tel Aviv District Planning and Building Committee, headed by Eran Nitzan, approve the master plan for the renewal of Herzliya's western employment zone, which is known as "Israel's high-tech district." The renewal of the quarter includes three million square meters that will be channeled for residential, employment and commerce, hotels and industry.
Due to the proximity to the metro, the committee also doubled the scope of housing from 3,000 housing units to 6,000 housing units, most of them small units of 60-80 square meters, in addition to 750 assisted living units. From a transportation perspective, the plan is based on the development of a transportation system, pedestrians, cyclists and other light vehicles, and encourages their use over the use of private vehicles, which according to the plan will not exceed 50% of the total movements in the complex.
Nevertheless, there seems to be no city that compares in terms of vision for population growth and development like Ramat Gan. The city's transportation vision led to the deposit of a plan to double the number of Ramat Gan residents, from 170,390 to 83,400 residents. This is an addition of no less than <>,<> apartments. How is this going to happen? Two metro lines are planned to pass within the city, one along Jerusalem Boulevard and the other in the southeastern part of the city, with a station within the Tel Hashomer hospital. In addition, two lines of the light rail will pass through it - the Red Line along Jabotinsky Road and the Purple Line along Aluf Sadeh Road and Rafael Eitan Road.
The stock exchange area will also be completely transformed. Two years ago, BSR and Israel Canada won the tender for the construction of the "Stock Exchange Triangle" complex in Ramat Gan, a unique and spectacular mega-project that combines mixed-use and will include long-term rental housing, student dormitories, employment, commerce and public spaces. This is a 17-dunam complex in the heart of TASE's business district, between Begin Street to the east and Ayalon Highway to the west, with one of its towers rising to a height of 100 floors, at a cost of NIS 2.4 billion. The cost of the land is an unimaginable NIS 937 million, even before construction costs.
This is also the place to mention the evacuation of IDF camps in the Zrifin compound, a real estate area that has become particularly sought after thanks to the planned metro there. In the area of the camp, millions of square meters are expected to be vacated for employment and housing.
From Zion will come the Torah, and in our case - transportation. If you are looking for a model and an example of how proper and efficient public transportation can change the face of the environment beyond recognition, you can shift your gaze eastward towards the Jerusalem Entrance Quarter project. The capital city was undoubtedly ahead of Tel Aviv in terms of light rail, and the fourth Blue Line is already planned. The biggest transportation transformation in Israel is taking place around Binyanei HaUma Jerusalem, an international complex with trains around it.
The entrance district to the city is located in the heart of the largest and most integrated transportation center in Israel, which includes the high-speed train station, the central bus station, three light rail lines, bicycle paths and an underground public parking lot with about 1,300 parking spaces.
The project includes construction of 1.2 million square meters, about 650,000 of which are for employment, hotels, residential and commercial purposes. About 20 towers of 18 to 40 floors will be built in the quarter, and recently it was even awarded an international standard for LEED green building.
The first tower to be built was designed by international architect Ian Bader from New York, who specializes in high-rise planning, and will include about 40 floors for employment and commercial uses, totaling about 80,<> square meters.
The public space in the project will be upgraded in order to make it vibrant and inviting, and was designed by the architectural firm TOPOTEK1 from Berlin.
Endless plans for building, housing, employment and commerce are being woven on the basis of the metro and light rail route. The local councils and developers are taking a huge chance here and betting on the jackpot, and even if work has begun on the ground, many bureaucratic entanglements, and apparently delays, are still ahead of them.
Japanese-Subway-Photography : Shutterstock,
How did they do it? 2,000 Tokyo Metro Lines
Big in Japan: While in Israel the stagnant metro project is being transferred from one hand to another, there are cities that know how to do it – and in a big way. Take Tokyo, for example, where no less than 2,000 metro lines operate, with stations located only two kilometers apart. What is the secret of success?
The competition is between a small number of companies that received huge radii of metro stations for operations, the length of the distance between Tel Aviv and Haifa or Jerusalem. The same companies have also received the real estate rights above the metro lines, and they are becoming real estate empires in which the metro is actually a marginal part. Thus, a person can be born in a hospital built by the metro company, study at the school it built, work in the company and advance throughout his life in one of the company's own offices and even shop in its supermarket and open an account in the bank it owns. Most likely, he also met his wife in the corridors of one of the offices of that super firm. In the event that the lines meet, the two companies start competing for the end consumer, or cooperate with each other.
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