Deal of the year in Jerusalem: Timberland founders bought an apartment for NIS 48 million
The apartment, spanning 307 sqm with a roof of similar size and a 74 sqm balcony, is located in a new project facing the Jerusalem Theater.
An apartment facing the Jerusalem Theater just sold for NIS 48 million, the highest price paid for an apartment in Jerusalem this year. The buyers: Sidney and Judith Swartz, founders of Timberland. The apartment is part of a project on Chopin Street by developer Hassid Brothers, and the deal closed in March.
The apartment, spanning 307 sqm with a roof of similar size and a 74 sqm balcony, is located in the Mishkenot HaTeatron [Theater Dwellings] complex on Chopin Street. The project includes three residential buildings containing 42 apartments alongside a boutique hotel of the MGallery chain with 73 rooms and suites. The apartment owners also enjoy the hotel's services: an indoor pool, spa, gym, restaurant and synagogue.
This deal is especially high and, factoring in the roof and balcony area, reflects a value of about NIS 111,000 per sqm. It is also high relative to previous deals in this project, which closed at a value of about NIS 100,000 per sqm. According to Israel Tax Authority data, in the last three years there was only one more expensive deal in Jerusalem: a British Jewish couple paid NIS 62 million for a penthouse spanning 437 sqm on Dubnov Street, in the complex where the mythological Schrober Villa is located.
The price the Swartz couple paid for the apartment is higher than the price the Hassid Brothers company paid the Israel Land Authority for the plot to build the project.
The company won the tender, which closed in 2009 at the height of the global financial crisis, with a bid of NIS 36.3 million. However, the economic cost was higher because, as a condition for receiving a building permit, the company was required to also build a parking lot for theater visitors, develop the adjacent grove, arrange the intersection, and create a pedestrian connection to the theater.
Most of the project has been sold, with four apartments remaining. The hotel opened gradually at the start of 2023, but following the war was converted to house evacuees. It reopened to the public in June 2025.
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Until 2011 the Swartz family owned the Timberland company, which Sidney (90) founded with his father Nathan. Sidney served as CEO and chairman of the company until 1998, when management of the company passed to his son Jeffrey. In 2011 the company was sold to VF Corporation for $2.3 billion.
The couple donated, among other things, to the establishment of an emergency medicine center at Hadassah Ein Kerem and a research center for embryonic stem cells at Hadassah. Jeffrey Swartz is chairman and a founder of the Maoz organization, which runs leadership programs in Israeli society.
