Holon Institute of Technology formally inaugurated its new dormitories on Monday after an investment of tens of millions of shekels were put into their construction.
The opening ceremony was held in the presence of numerous senior local officials, including Holon Mayor Moti Sasson, who said that "the student dormitories at HIT include 500 new housing units."
He added, "Holon will be able to become a leading youth center in Gush Dan."
The establishment of the dormitories is new and important news for students at the institute in particular and for the residents of Holon in general. The dormitories will include about 428 apartments designed to house about 472 students. The dormitories were built on a plot of land measuring 7 acres and are about 9 stories high.
Students will also have an underground parking lot with spaces for about 300 vehicles.
The 3 HIT student dormitory buildings include 4 types of apartments: an apartment for a single person, an apartment for a couple, an apartment for two roommates and an apartment for three roommates.
Each apartment includes a restroom and each student gets their own bedroom (except apartments for couples in which the bedroom is shared).
The size of the apartments starts at 20 square meters for singles' apartments and get up to 69 square meters for apartments for three roommates. The monthly rent in the dormitory starts at about NIS 1,345.
The dormitory complex includes apartments for people with disabilities, allowing students with disabilities to have priority choice of such apartments.
Who helped the dormitories get built?
The construction of the dormitories was made possible thanks to several entities, among them, the Solel Bona Housing and Construction Group, the Municipality of Holon, and the Planning and Budgeting Committee from the Council for Higher Education.
The dormitories are expected to be near the future metro station in the city. According to estimates, this is a project costing approximately NIS 200 million.
"In view of the ongoing housing crisis in the State of Israel, I call on the government to lead a national project to establish student dormitories throughout the country," said HIT President, Prof. Eduard Yakubov. "The HIT student dormitories in which hundreds of students will live will jump-start the city's economy. Our dormitories will give young people living in all corners of the country the opportunity to study at HIT in peace.
"For us, the dormitories are a source of tremendous pride and a significant achievement for the city of Holon."
Prof. Edward Yaakovov
The dorms were built in the Build-operate-transfer (BOT) method, meaning that there was "an initial concession by a public entity... to a private firm to both build and operate the project in question," according to Investopedia.com. This was led by Israeli infrastructure and real estate company Shikun & Binui. "After a set time frame, typically two or three decades, control of the project is returned to the public entity."
CEO of Shikun & Binui Tamir Cohen, said, "This is a significant yielding property that will be added to Shikun and Binui's yielding assets, and will help the company to increase the amount of income from yielding properties in relation to project-based income, and this in accordance with Shikun and Binui's business strategy."