(JNi.media) American-born Israeli businesswoman Shari Arison, considered Israel’s wealthiest woman, has completed the purchase of as many as 1,000 rental apartments in Berlin, in an overall deal worth $145 million, several Israel newspapers reported Tuesday.
ADO Properties, a Frankfurt exchange subsidiary of ADO Group, a real estate company listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, which is a subsidiary of the Shikun & Binui construction Group, controlled by Arison, has finalized a deal over the Sukkot holiday to pick up a 95% ownership in between 885 and 1,000 housing units. The units, built for rental, are located in Prenzlauer Berg, in the southern part of the borough of Pankow; Kreuzberg — one of the best-known areas of central Berlin; Neukölln, located in the southeastern part of the city, formerly part of the American sector; and Pankow, in north Berlin.
The average annual rental on these apartment is $7 million. ADO Properties will be funding the deal out of its large cash holdings.
Shari Arison was born in New York, the daughter of the businessman Ted Arison and Mina Arison Sapir. In 1966 her parents divorced, and she moved to live with her mother in Israel. At age 12 she returned to the US to live with her father, and five years later came back again and enlisted in the IDF.
In 1999 Arison inherited from her late father 35% of his possessions, and four years later she was the subject of major protests after firing 900 employees of Bank Hapoalim.
Berlin has been a popular destination for Israelis for more than a decade. The German website israelisinberlin.de has written recently that “more and more Israelis leave their homeland for Berlin. The reasons may be financial, personal or political, but the basic factor is that a growing group finds that life in the war-mongering right wing government of Israel is unbearable. Cheap, multicultural Berlin attracts a growing Israeli population.”