The Urban Development and Renewal Company is a private company. Among its founders: architect Gil Shenhav, economist and real estate expert Nir Shmol, and attorney Yariv Bar-Dayan, who have extensive experience in real estate projects in general and in the field of urban renewal, especially evacuation and construction.
Over the years, the company has developed a special working model - the "social model" which sees the tenant (landowner) as the center of the process.
The social model consists of several stages as follows:
Stage 1 – The company operates in complexes where tenants contact it.
Stage 2 – Appraisal and architectural feasibility tests are conducted to examine the project's prospects. If the answers to the two above tests are positive,
Stage 3 – After the tenants contact us, meetings are held with volunteer representatives of the rights holders in the complex for the purpose of mutual impressions and obtaining an impression regarding the possibilities of the project's success.
Step 4 – After all the tests are successfully completed, the most important step takes place - the concentration of all the tenants under the professional umbrella of the company. The idea underlying the organization is that the concentration of the tenants together will give the tenants great power both in the internal relationship between the various tenants and themselves and especially in the relationship with the various developers/contractors. The organization is the power! And the power is thus found with the tenants - the landowners.
Stage 5 – After organizing the tenants and most of them signing the support and representation agreement (at least 80%), the company begins activities towards the realization of a transaction in the complex in front of the municipal authorities and the various committees in order to validate the plan.
Step 6 – At this stage, the company conducts a tender among leading entrepreneurs/contractors in the economy to select the entrepreneur/contractor with whom the tenants will contract. In this tender method, the large construction companies compete in a real and professional manner for the right to build the complex. In such competition and naturally, the compensation to which the tenants are entitled increases significantly. It is important to note that the company conducts the tender, but the tenants have the ability to influence the terms and details of the tender and most importantly, only the tenants are the ones who choose the contractor/entrepreneur with whom they will contract! The company has no say in the selection.
The professional experience of the company's managers and owners is rich and extensive. The Canaan Shenhav office is one of the oldest and leading architectural offices in the residential sector in Israel and plans thousands of housing units throughout the country per year. Attorney Bar-Dayan, owner and founder of the Yariv Bar-Dayan Law Firm, is a veteran attorney specializing in real estate and represents both landowners and leading construction companies on a large scale. Economist Nir Shmol, owner and founder of Snir Project Marketing, is an experienced real estate and marketing professional who previously served as VP of a large development company. The company's leaders are recognized and accepted in the construction industry at all levels.
The company and professional consultants represent the rights holders (tenants) only! And later plan the project in full.
The contractor/developer chosen will bear this fee. The professional consultants work on a success basis and will only be entitled to a fee if the project is realized.
The ideal situation would be for the rights holders to pay the aforementioned salary. However, in light of the fact that the rights holders are unable and/or unwilling to pay the required amounts, the salary is paid by the contractor/developer. This payment, which is essentially a technical means, does not create a conflict of interest, and the duty of loyalty of the company and the professional team is owed solely to the rights holders. This mechanism works in all projects of this type in Israel.
The company will declare the complex as an "urban renewal" complex. In this case, the owner will be fully exempt from paying the improvement tax and purchase tax. The improvement levy will apply if the contractor/developer is not exempt. The contractor/developer will bear the company's and professional consultants' fees and the cost of transporting the apartments.
Tenants pay nothing! The entire procedure described above is carried out without the tenants being required to pay any fee, neither to the company nor to the professional consultants, and of course not to the contractor/developer of their choice.
Each tenant will receive a new, larger apartment in the new building to be built. The area of the new apartment will be determined in negotiations with the contractors/developers who will participate in the tender, and among other things, the contractors/developers who provide the largest additional area will have an advantage during the selection process. The new apartment will have a sun terrace and covered parking. The technical specifications of the apartments will be identical to the technical specifications of the developer/contractor's apartments and no less than the technical specifications determined by the architect on behalf of the tenants. The location of the apartments will be determined by agreement between the representatives of the tenants and the company.
During the construction period, the owners move into rental housing. The contractor will pay the tenants monthly rent (even to tenants who do not live in the building). The amount of rent will be determined in advance of the date of eviction.
(Important question). In order to obtain the appropriate security in the transaction, the following steps are taken:
The identity of the contractor/entrepreneur - the identity of the contractor/entrepreneur and his financial strength are of great importance;
Bank guarantee - A condition for vacating the old apartment is receiving a bank guarantee (Sales Law) for the value of the new apartment. This guarantee is essentially similar to the guarantee that every buyer of a new apartment receives from a regular contractor in the free market;
Bank guarantee to ensure payment of rent - a condition for vacating the old apartment will be receipt of an autonomous bank guarantee that decreases according to the rate of construction progress. The amount of the guarantee will be equal to the expected number of months of construction plus a number of months of security;
Appointment of an engineering manager on behalf of the tenants - It is recommended to appoint an engineering manager to prepare the engineering portion of the tender, accompany the construction, delivery and inspection process.
There are several accepted ways to determine the order of apartment selection. For example - a lottery between the owners to determine the order of selection, or appointing a real estate appraiser who will rank the owners' apartments according to their value. In the project in question, the selection method will be determined by agreement between the tenant representatives and the contractor/developer they choose.
The process is completely transparent and open. The residents are involved in the entire decision-making process and influence it. Tenants who are not involved will receive ongoing reporting by mail, email, regular updates in the project's WhatsApp groups, conferences, tenant meetings, and more.
The company has two projects that have completed the process, with the apartment owners returning to their apartments in the new project. The first project is "Rimoni Tidhar" in the Morasha neighborhood, Ramat Hasharon, and the second is "Green Park" in the Neve Sharet neighborhood, Tel Aviv.