A historic building in Jerusalem – the Tnuvah cheese factory near the old Biblical Zoo – was razed to the ground on Tuesday, making way for a compound of 330 new apartments for the hareidi-religious public.
The last building to be left standing in the old Tnuvah compound, on the corner of Bar Ilan and Shamgar Streets in Romema, remained standing for an extra few days in order to allow the IDF Home Front Command to perform a rescue exercise.
As of late Tuesday morning, where large silos stood until recently, nothing is left but rocks and ruins. Dangerous substances that had been stored in the compound were removed over the past weeks.
The compound was purchased not long ago by a group of hareidi investors, following months of negotiations. They plan to construct there no fewer than ten buildings of 11-12 stories each, above a commercial area and underground parking. A swimming pool, health center, and open areas are also planned.
The entire area is some 14.5 dunams (3.6 acres), of which 20 percent will be used for stores and the like, and another area slightly larger than that will be reserved for the construction of public structures.
A total of 330 housing units are planned.
In other hareidi-sector housing news, the name of a neighborhood in Beit Shemesh has been changed from Heftzibah, which has negative connotations of bankruptcy and stranded homeowners, to Knei Bosem – the name of a set of scholarly works written by the late Rabbi Meir Bransdorfer, of the Eida Hareidit rabbinical court.
The Beit Shemesh municipal names committee agreed to the change in light of a request by a group of residents. Two years ago, the Heftzibah Construction Company went bankrupt, leaving a large construction project in Modi'in Illit half-finished and hundreds of families without homes. The government ultimately stepped in, to a certain extent, to help the families, many of whom have not yet recovered financially to this day.