Kibbutz Kfar Aza joins Reches Real Estate to build a new NIS 250m industrial site
The 42,000 square-meter industrial complex is expected to be rented out to offices, businesses and industry and will create jobs for returning residents of Gaza border communities
Sharon Wrobel is a tech reporter for The Times of Israel.
Kibbutz Kfar Aza, located close to the Gaza border, has signed a deal with Reches Real Estate and the Zadok Group to jointly build and manage a new multipurpose industrial complex at a cost of NIS 250 million ($67 million) to provide residents with jobs once they will be able to return home and to attract businesses to the war-hit area.
The complex, which is expected to take about three years to be completed, will offer 42,000 square meters (452,000 square feet) of building space and cover an area of about 60 dunams (15 acres) located in the industrial zone of Kibbutz Kfar Gaza. The Zadok Group will be the anchor tenant of the project and will rent out space for office use, industry, businesses, and for storage purposes.
“The establishment of the industrial complex in Kfar Aza is more than a business opportunity – it is a national mission,” said Tomer Katz, founder of Reches Real Estate, which is co-owned by Arkin Capital, told The Times of Israel. “We are seeing interest by businesses and industry seeking to move to peripheral areas because of expensive rents in the center of the country.”
“We hope that the residents of Kfar Aza and the surrounding communities will be able to move back home soon and that the establishment of the complex will give them a positive perspective for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the Tekuma area [of Gaza border communities] and the strengthening of the economy in this challenging period.”
The project which is in the planning stages will be erected next to the entrance to Kibbutz Kfar Gaza, 15 minutes from Highway 4 and 20 minutes from Highway 6, and will be accessible to population and employment pools from the surrounding southern communities, including Ofakim, Sderot, Netivot, as well as Beersheba, Ashkelon and Kiryat Gat.
The return of thousands of residents of Gaza border communities to their homes has been further delayed because of the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, after being displaced for over a year now. Many Gaza border evacuees cannot go home either because the communities are not safe or their infrastructure was too badly damaged by the Hamas terror onslaught of October 7 last year. They are being housed in temporary neighborhoods built for them in the Negev region of southern Israel. Most of Kibbutz Kfar Aza has moved to Kibbutz Ruhama.
The partners in the Kfar Aza project hope that the convenient location and advanced infrastructure will make the complex one of the leading and advanced industrial centers in the region.
“Reconstruction and then prosperity of the area surrounding Gaza will only be possible by combining the forces of the State of Israel, the business world and the residents – it starts with education, employment and infrastructure,” said Ori Epstein, Kfar Aza’s agricultural and business manager. “I am excited to sign this deal as it will lead to the creation of hundreds of sources of employment for the residents of the Gaza border area and at the same time provide a significant source of income for the Kfar Aza community that will go towards the rehabilitation and the absorption of residents as they move back to their homes.”
In Kfar Aza, 62 people were killed on October 7 last year from a community of 1,000 residents when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists massacred some 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and took some 250 hostages. Among the lost ones, are Epstein’s son, Netta, 22, who dived onto a Hamas grenade to save his fiancé’s life during the massacre in southern Israel. His mother, Bilha, 81, and another grandson, Nitzan Libstein, were also murdered in the onslaught in the kibbutz, as was her son-in-law, Ofir Libstein, head of the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council and Nitzan’s father.
More than a year after the October 7 massacre Kfar Aza is emerging as one of the first Gaza-border neighborhoods that is not waiting for the authorities and is taking its own initiative to be fully renovated with the help of the Brothers and Sisters in Arms organization and volunteers.
