(Courtesy of B’sheva) For years, we have gotten used to seeing neighborhoods being built slowly and gradually, their planning stages taking very long time, and when it’s finally time for the entire neighborhood to come to completion, there are tenants who have entered their homes years ago or have been living practically in a construction site. The ‘Betzvata’ neighborhood in the city of Harish is proof there is another way to go in how to design, build, operate and transfer a neighborhood
In a record-breaking time period of less than three years, the company Shapir Engineering built the very first project in the new “design, build, operate, transfer” (DBOT) method. Although other projects have suffered delays due to the coronavirus, the Betzvata neighborhood withstood all challenges and was even ahead of schedule. This is a huge project that consists of more than 1,500 housing units in 86 buildings, alongside two elementary schools, 11 kindergartens, a community center, a gym, playing field, 3D care classrooms, and 14 public grounds, which include parks, playground, and a commercial center, Shapir Center.
According to this DBOT method, one constructor is responsible for building the entire neighborhood in every single stage—starting from the designing, planning and developing stages, up to the actual building of the housing units, the infrastructure, public and educational buildings—within a predetermined period of time which stands at 40 months. This is in contrast to the construction of ordinary neighborhoods, which is carried out by a number of construction companies with separate authorities dealing with issues of infrastructure, public buildings and commerce. Yitzhak Keshet, mayor of Harish’s local council, was the first one to have his city achieve this project in such a DBOT method, a project he concludes as a great success. Cooperation between the council and the construction company can lead to advancing the project in record-breaking time, he said.
“Beyond the great news it brought, it helped substantially shorten the schedule and shorten processes that would have otherwise taken years,” said Keshet, who noted the ability of DBOT “to promote processes more quickly, and while cooperating with the developer himself, who wished for his product to be as perfect as possible. The developer contributed in planning and creating parks and playgrounds so the citizens can receive the best neighborhood they could possibly get. We were under a very tight and challenging schedule along with the company Shapir, and we got lucky they won the project.”
How much does the fact that the entire neighborhood and 1,500 housing units are all out for sale affect the prices of those houses? “The initial prices for these housing units were exceptionally low,” said Keshet, “and now the prices have gone up substantially in 50% at the very least.”
Israel’s ministry of construction and housing also refers to the Betzvata neighborhood as a great success. Head of the ministry of construction, Aviad Friedman, explained: “Our perception is that the DBOT project can assist in building in areas that are in need of accelerated building and development. The goal is that from the moment of receiving the building permits, the entire neighborhood will be complete within a time period of three to four years. This is a project that does everything all at once: planning the education system, both kindergartens and synagogues, which is a great advantage, because one institution promotes and develops it all. The project in Harish was an exceptionally successful start. These permits usually call for big, broadly experienced developers because they need to possess the ability to both plan and develop well subsequently building everything.”
After the success in Harish, a second project has begun development in Area D’5 in the Ramat Bet Shemesh neighborhood, and is intended for the religious and ultra-Orthodox public. The project’s price is currently estimated at more than 1.5 million shekels, and includes 1,036 housing units, alongside public institutions, infrastructure, employment centers, kindergartens and synagogues. This neighborhood, too, will be built by the Shapir Engineering Group, this time in cooperation with the company Native.
Aliza Bloch, mayor of the city of Bet Shemesh, told us: “In a normal neighborhood one person plans, another builds and afterward everything is handled separately in public institutions. In this case, with education and employment institutions in Bet Shemesh, people take the entire responsibility—planning everything and building everything together and, eventually, creating the most wonderful neighborhood with no exceptions. This also enables thinking ahead towards the neighborhood’s image and what communities should be brought into it.”
Alongside the local authorities also stands the innovator himself. The two neighborhoods, both the one built in Harish and the one that will be built soon in Bet Shemesh, are both thanks to Shapir Real Estate and Construction Company. The company creates the projects in new innovations in Bet Shemesh together in partnership with the company A.P.I. Development Inc. The Shapir Group has plenty of multifunctional experiences in every realm regarding founding, building and maintaining projects in the construction field, development and infrastructure field. Their ability to build neighborhoods in the DBOT method has a clear sign of success.
The company says that other than building and surrounding neighborhoods in record time with absolutely no compromise, their greatest achievement is that residents are given a brand new, newly renovated neighborhood without the burden of noise, messy construction and possible danger. “A neighborhood freshly out of the package.” The ability to build and develop in record time and maintain quality even under the given time stems from years of experience that Shapir has over a number of huge, successful nationwide projects. Shapir combines every section of the company, which all provide an “in-house” service with experience and knowledge in all subjects, alongside the logistical wing and a nationwide presence, all to provide developments larger and more complex than most.
Julian Strosta, head of real estate at Shapir, discussed the importance the company sees in the DBOT projects. “These projects possess a number of great advantages: the first being that the property buyers enter their brand new neighborhood with all of the public institutions, buildings and infrastructures all ready. For example, we would not allow a new building to be filled with new buyers before the crucial projects, like the kindergartens, are finished. We would not allow a never-ending cycle where citizens are waiting patiently for their new neighborhoods to be fully finished, sometimes more than 10 years.”
In the DBOT project the new tenant will be meeting his new home in the neighborhood, not amidst open tunnels and groundwork that has yet to be completed. We asked Strosta to discuss how this is achieved.
What allowed you to withstand the first challenge? Describe the success of the DBOT method in the Betzvata neighborhood in Harish.
In Shapir’s case, there is a perfect combination of all fields of activity in the company, which provides much higher abilities, better than just a regular contractor. In this case, just like other huge projects Shapir has worked on, we merge all the group activities—industrial, infrastructures and real estate—in perfect harmony, starting from supplying the raw materials—including quarry materials, concrete, iron, piping through groundwork—all the way to planning and constructing.
The entire process is done in the best way possible, and in the most useful way that encompasses years of experience that Shapir has gained building and developing projects with the most complex infrastructures, such as 16 Road in the very last entrance to Jerusalem, a 6 km road that includes tunnels, bridges and infrastructures that will certainly make the entrance to Jerusalem much easier, and is expected to open and in significant speed.
Another large and complex project is the light-rail project we are developing in Jerusalem, which includes lengthening the red route and building the green route; three information centers and the trains; tens of kilometers of real road and stations for long distances—all within operating the current route and improving the service for our citizens. On the other hand, an environment supported by the local authorities is also greatly needed.
Do you think we will be seeing more projects like this in the future? How will you duplicate the success?
Due to the great success of Betzvata in Harish, it is clear that the government has recognized the great advantages of this building method. As it seems, the housing problem we are trapped in today will not be solved in the near future, and substantial acceleration is needed in the speed of building new housing in this sense. DBOT is the perfect solution for building a large quantity of buildings at a speedy pace and housing hundreds, if not thousands of families all at once, in a fully developed neighborhood with all one could ask for a quality of life for the citizens and for the city’s development.
