Camp Glilot is also slated for market, with 12,000 housing units and commercial centers expected to be built, starting with an initial phase where 3,840 units will be marketed.
Another very attractive property is the Sharon Military Industries Compound, which stretches across 1,865 acres (1,200 of them in the main gated complex). This area lies within the municipal boundaries of Ramat Hasharon, Herzliya, and Hod Hasharon. It is anticipated to one day house 23,000 new apartments, 8,000 acres of commercial space, 800 acres of public space, and 1.65 million square meters for public institutions
Planners are also preparing to build 16,000 more housing units on 350 acres of land that currently house the Sde Dov Airport in north Tel Aviv (with some of the profits going to the Defense Ministry). Camp 80 in Pardes Hana-Karkur will make way for 1,030 new apartments. The Ganim Complex in Ramat Gan will soon be cleared out for 1,200 new apartments. The Sirkin Base in Petach Tikva will soon be home to 12,000 new apartments and 30,000 square meters of commercial space. The northern part of the Tel Hashomer camp will house 2,033 new apartments as well as 11,786 offices on a total of 270 dunams, all of which lies within the municipal boundaries of Ramat Gan. The eastern section of Tel Hashomer is slated to house an additional 2,800 new apartments.
“This is an issue that is of utmost importance,” Uri Ariel said before assuming the post of Housing Minister. “People have gotten the impression that the IDF is an army with a country, and the many properties [that it owns] in the city centers have an impact on the cost of living for all of us. The situation cannot remain as it has been over here for the past 60 years. It is inconceivable for the IDF to continue to hold onto so much land when it has no need for it.”
The Israeli government has allocated more than $500 million for the construction of the massive IDF Officers Training and Instruction base in the northern Negev, that will house many of the army’s camps and divisions that being relocated. The project is part of a comprehensive plan to relocate IDF bases to the Negev, and its objective is twofold: freeing up valuable property in the center of the country currently occupied by the army, and expediting the development of the Negev.
Some of the bases and camps being relocated from the middle of the country will move to the north. The factory that assembles Israel’s famed Merkava tank in Tel Hashomer will move to N’eura, at the foot of Mt. Carmel. Sde Dov will be relocated to two sites – the landing space at Ein Shemer, and the Uvda base in the Negev. Glilot, Tzrifin, and Sirkin will be relocated to the Negev junction and the Be’er Sheva region, as will the Technical High School in Haifa.
It is estimated that the relocation of all IDF bases will make way for the construction of more than 100,000 housing units from the high-value center of Israel. This will address the major housing shortage that is plaguing the State today.