SDE DOV District –  A new residential district in North Tel Aviv

In 2010, the government decided to close Sde Dov airport in order to allow the development of a new residential district. The Sde Dov district is a planned community, a bustling urban district that combines residential buildings with a total of about 16,000 housing units, commercial areas, public buildings and parks. The Tel Aviv municipality defines the SDE DOVE district project as its flagship project that strives to create an urban fabric that can compete with the most advanced cities in the world today.

The area on which the district will be built, spanning about 370 acres, is one of the last undeveloped areas on Tel Aviv’s waterside intended for residential use. The district plan includes spacious parks along the coast, a promenade, water sports centers, a marina and hotels.

SDE DOV is planned according to the principles of green, leading, and innovative construction:

• Energy-independent district, with a modern and groundbreaking electrical system.
• The buildings will generate 10% of their own electricity consumption.
• An innovative facility that will provide automatic garbage removal services.
• Advanced public transportation infrastructures.
• “blue” roofs will regulate the flow of water to the street during heavy rains and prevent flooding.

SDE DOV district mapping

The boundaries of the district: the beach to the West, Propas Street to the North, Levy Eshkol Street to the East and Shay Agnon Street to the South. The adjacent neighborhoods – the Kochav Hazafon to the South, the Lamed and Nofey Yam neighborhoods to the East, and the Chen area to the North-East.

The district will be divided into 3 complexes, Eschkol, Central and Northern complex.

Of the 16,000 housing units in the district, about 4,500 have been designated as special purpose housing units and can be used for assisted living, student dormitories, rental housing, and the like. Over 5 million square feet for the construction of public buildings, about 1.3 million square feet for commercial areas, about 3.5 million square feet for offices and about 1.3 million square feet hotels. Public gardens and parks will cover approximately 100 acres.

Sde Dov district serves as the last open land division within the bounds of the historical city, and its planning vision stems from two sources. The first source is identifying the enormous advantages of its unique location.  It’s located at the junction of the city’s two important landscape axes (the Yarkon Park and the beach), which attract large amounts of recreational and leisure activities, as well as bringing continuity from the existing urban fabric to the south. The second source for the vision stems from the challenges of long-term planning for high densities.

The proposed construction combines low-rise dense building with high-rise towers while maintaining the central function of the street as the plan’s heart, alongside a coastal park which begins at the Tel Baruch beach and ends at the Reading Marina. The Marina is planned to grow and acts as an important addition to the field of sailing in the country.

Sde Dov is a winning location that will allow for the ultimate quality of life, green and open areas measuring approximately 120 acres, including, among other things, the huge coastal park between the towers and the sea, with a spectacular promenade and modern bike paths that will connect the district to the length and breadth of the city, and low public buildings that will maintain an open line of sight to the sea.

Current status

The Sde Dov district is not ready now, and is expected to begin marketing and constructing apartments in more advanced stages in the near future, after the outline plan was approved in 2020 and the infrastructure and tenders continue to progress. The Israel Canada company has already received a construction permit, and will begin work in the coming weeks and is expected to finish construction by 2030, while additional companies expect to receive permits in the coming months. Most of the district will be completed by 2032-2033.

“Can reach 150,000 NIS per square meter”

In this year’s Real Estate Center Conference that was held in Eilat with the participation of senior real estate industry figures, the Sde Dov district was analyzed. 

In the panel of Risks and Opportunities, Yigaal Dimri, owner and founder of Dimri Group which is one of Israel’s leading residential real estate firms, stated that in his estimation, prices in Sde Dov will continue to rise. As a reminder, in July 2024, Y. Dimri purchased a prestigious plot of land in the district and according to the plan, it will be able to build 458 residential units in a modular construction and a tower, in addition to hotel space with a total of about 70 rooms. The project covers an area of ​​about 25,000 square meters and includes commercial space with an area of ​​about 15,000 square meters. “The companies that won the complexes in Sde Dov are respectable companies,” said Dimri. “This is not an easy period and it will take two years to get off the ground. But we are talking about an area that is the best place in the State of Israel. “I estimate that in a decade or two, the price level there will surpass Rothschild or the Yarkon. There too it could reach 150,000 shekels per square meter.”

Tzachi Hajaj, one of the owners of the Hajaj Zim Group, a real estate development company, expressed optimism: “The period is not that bad in my opinion. Ultimately, we are heading for good years in 2025-26. We went through a very difficult event but came out very strengthened.” As you may recall, Hajaj won the last tender, in February 2025, in Sde Dov for an area of ​​approximately 50,000 square meters. According to the plan, the company will build 350 apartments in a 45-story tower and 9-story brick buildings. According to the company’s announcement to the stock exchange published immediately after winning the tender, the Hajj Group’s profit from the Sde Dov project is expected to range between NIS 460-900 million. “We see in the sales offices who is coming. There are more foreign residents coming to buy apartments. Tel Aviv is a very strong city. In Sde Dov, even if we sell for 90,000 shekels per square meter, it’s not too high a number for Tel Aviv. It’s a first line to the sea and those are the prices in Tel Aviv, which has a lot of strengths. In 2016, in the Meyer Tower, the average price was 116,000 shekels per square meter. So, the prices in Sde Dov on the sea, you don’t need to be scared of them.”

The content of this article is designed to provide the reader with general information and not to serve as legal or other professional advice for a particular transaction