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Abstract
This article examines the relationship between recent luxury residences built in Jerusalem and the city’s fragile urban fabric regarding the extent to which government affects the form of such projects in practice. It highlights the establishment of a pattern-driven policy—a form of policy resulting from the entrenchment of specific solutions. The research addresses two seemingly unrelated spheres, namely urban regime and planning gains, and urban design, as embodied in Jerusalem’s “ghost complexes”. Based on the Jerusalem case, we depict the practicability of the planning deal between the municipality and the entrepreneur as the driving force shaping the built environment under the neo-liberal rationale that controls negotiations between the municipality and the developers. Relations between local government and developers may develop in a pattern-driven path; hence, specific solutions may become entrenched and affect the nature of understandings or agreements, thereby continuously affecting the cityscape.
Notes
1. According to the Ministry of Finance’s State Revenue Administration, foreign direct real estate investment has declined substantially since 2008. However, since mid-2010, especially in the last quarter of that year, foreign direct investment in residential real estate has been rapidly increasing (Israel Ministry of Finance, Citation2011).
2. Research conducted in 2007 by a private consultant utilized data regarding local tax and use of water and found about 9,500 “ghost apartments” registered under foreign owners and left empty most of the time. A recent municipal update reports on 11,161 “ghost apartments” in the city.
3. See the letter at: http://uploaded8.jerusalem.muni.il/Blogs/1_29_29_725_ENG_LETTER_B[1].pdf
5. Council meeting no. 44, 24.11.2011. Protocol available from http://blog.jerusalem.muni.il/ (in Hebrew).
6. Recently, on March 2014, former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was found guilty in receiving bribes in the development of a massive Jerusalem construction project, when he was the mayor of the city (between 1993 and 2003).
7. On the Ottoman capitulations and the capitulary regime see: Wasserstein (Citation2001), de Groot (Citation2003), and Libertun de Duren (Citation2011).
8. See Real Estate Surveys in: http://ozar.mof.gov.il/hachnasot/ [Hebrew].
9. In 2009, about 2.5 million person nights were registered in Jerusalem’s hotels, far more than in any other city in Israel (CBS, Citation2012).
10. Translation by the authors.
11. According to the State Revenue Administration, by 2010, FDI in apartments in Israel had decreased by 35%, probably because of global recession. The trend was reversed in the second half of the year and appears to have stabilized in 2011, the number of apartments sold to foreigners increasing by 33% (Israel Ministry of Finance, Citation2011).
12. Listed buildings are on a statutory list of Buildings of Historic Interest intended for preservation. Currently, 100 historic buildings are listed, but many other important buildings remain unprotected. All plans for the city center require the approval of the preservation department of the municipal planning department.
13. In Hebrew: The prophets.
14. For more details see: http://res.afig.com/en/cities/jerusalem/haneviimcourt/pages/default.aspx
15. The Jerusalem District Planning and Building Sub-Commission for Planning Objections, decision of January 2010, Protocol no. 2010004.
16. For more details see: http://www.king-david-crown.com/
17. In 2007, the average price of apartments in Jerusalem purchased by foreigners was NIS 1.7 million, whereas the average price of apartments purchased by local Israelis was NIS 821,000. Apartment size in the King David’s Crown complex, for example, is 140–294 sq. m., which includes 3–5 bedrooms—far beyond the standard for typical Jerusalem apartments.
18. Other examples: http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/mayor-tells-ghost-jerusalem-residents-rent-out-or-sell-up-1.2664; http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=213221; http://welcomingolim.blogspot.com/2012/03/ghost-apartments.html
19. An investigation into Jerusalem’s ghost complexes was broadcast in the magazine Hamakor, (“The source”) on Channel 10, 3.4.2012 (http://news.nana10.co.il/Category/?CategoryID=400299); Channel 2 broadcasts 25.8.2010, (http://www.mako.co.il/news-israel/local/Article-99088093acaaa21004.htm), another in 25.3.2012 (http://www.mako.co.il/news-channel2/Economy-Newcast/Article-0faaebc52fa4631018.htm)
20. Anglo-Saxon Real Estate and Home4Trip (www.home4trip.com) offered apartments for short-term vacation rentals. Owners can see when apartments are rented, or block off dates when they want to use the property. Currently, the website offers about 50 apartments in Jerusalem.
21. Shlomo Eshkol, City Engineer, Jerusalem, and Hagai Regev, urban economist, “Planning in Times of Turbulence”, lecture no. 20 in the series “What Makes a Place? Culture and Architecture in Cities around the World”. Personal communication, 9 July 2009.