Small pub gives big headache to tower plans

Pub owner Yair Haleli says the tower planners have offered him $500,000 to vacate his historic pub, but he doesn't want money.

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
One small pub is proving to be one big headache for the Migdalei David luxury apartment and hotel complex planned to be built on the Tayelet next to the Opera tower, reports Yediot Tel Aviv. The family that has owned the Nostalgia pub since 1954 is refusing to sell up and vacate the premises, and the pub is proving to be the last obstacle standing in the way of the complex, which will contain a shopping mall and 200 residential units in two, 28-storey towers. According to the report, pub owner Yair Haleli says the tower planners have offered him $500,000 to vacate his historic pub, "but I don't want money." He says his only demand is that he be given premises of the same size in the planned shopping mall, but his demand has been refused. No comment was reported from the tower planning company.