Sde Dov, Tel Aviv, the story, the projects, the data

1938The airfield

Sde Dov opened in September 1938, carved out of the dunes north of the Yarkon while the roads to Lydda were unsafe. Palestine Airways flew from here; the RAF took it in the war; Israel's first air force squadron lifted off from this strip in 1947. The city grew up around it and never quite got over it: a working airport on the most valuable coastline in the country.

In its final full year the little field moved 703,649 passengers, most of them shuttling to Eilat. On June 30, 2019, the last flight departed and the tower went quiet. Only that tower still stands today: the one building the plan preserves.

The main hangar at the Dov Hoz airfield near Tel Aviv, 1938 — The main hangar, photographed the year the airfield openedZoltan Kluger, Government Press Office · restored and colourised

An Israir turboprop on final approach over Sde Dov with the control tower behind — Final approach over the field, the control tower on the horizonChen Haik / PikiWiki · colour-graded

Night landing at Sde Dov — Night landing: the sea just beyond the threshold lightsOren Peles / PikiWiki (CC BY 2.5) · colour-graded

The Sde Dov control tower seen from below, its glazed cabin covered in graffiti — The control tower from below: the one building from the airfield that the plan preservesPikiWiki Israel / Wikimedia Commons

1970sHalf a century of tug-of-war

1,892 owners, one runway.

The land under the runway was never simple. Inside the airport's fence sat "the Big Bloc": famous parcels bought by private families generations ago, 1,892 owners whose rights a court only finished sorting in September 2025. Around them, the state, the city, and the army argued for fifty years about whether planes or people should own this coast.

The government decided in 2012. The Defense Ministry took a billion shekels to leave early, the Supreme Court set the date, and in July 2019 the fence came down. Within a year the runway was rubble and Tel Aviv was staring at something it had never had: an empty, city-sized piece of itself, one row of dunes from the sea.

Aerial photograph of the demolished Sde Dov airport site in October 2020 — October 2020: the airport erased, the land waitingStas Umansky, Wikimedia Commons (CC) · colour-graded

Empty hangars at Sde Dov after the last flights — The hangars emptied, February 2020Times of Israel

2020A district drawn from scratch

Masterplan TA/4444 has been in force since August 2020, and it is not a housing estate. It is a full district drawn at once, the way planners dream and cities rarely allow. Sixteen thousand homes in three complexes. Half a million square meters of schools and public buildings. Offices, shops, around 3,000 hotel rooms, and almost a third of the ground given to parks.

Towers stand back from the water behind low "fabric" buildings of seven to nine floors, so the street stays human and the skyline steps up as you walk inland. The old runway becomes Runway Park. The Green Line light rail crosses the district with four stations. Even the garbage is planned: pneumatic pipes instead of trucks.

complexes, Eshkol, Central, North: 3complexes, Eshkol, Central, North
dunams of public space: ~480dunams of public space
light-rail stations on the Green Line: 4light-rail stations on the Green Line
hotel rooms planned: 3,000hotel rooms planned
sqm of public buildings: 500Ksqm of public buildings
floors, low streets to landmark towers: 7-45floors, low streets to landmark towers

Sources: Plan TA/4444 program figures, Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality and district-plan documents, via district records.

The Sde Dov district masterplan map showing the three complexes along the coast — The masterplan: Eshkol south, Central, and North along two kilometers of coastPlan TA/4444, via district records

Map of the Green Line light rail route through Sde Dov with its four stations — Four light-rail stations: Propes, Nofei Yam, Einstein, Zahara LevitovNTA

2021The most expensive dirt in Israel

When the state finally auctioned the first lots in 2021, developers paid ₪4.4 billion for the right to build 1,540 homes: about ₪2.8 million per apartment before a shovel touched the ground, six and a half times the minimum price. Then came the biggest residential tender wave in Tel Aviv's history: land for more than 7,100 homes offered in one push in September 2024.

The 2025 winners paid roughly forty percent less per home than the 2021 record: a rare, honest repricing of the country's most wanted address. Israel Canada, Gindi, Dimri, Hagag, Dan, Melisron, Tshuva: nearly every major name in Israeli real estate now holds a piece of the field.

2021

₪4.4B

first tender: 1,540 homes, 6.5× the minimum price

2022

₪654M

follow-up tender cools: 241 homes

2024

7,159

homes offered in one mega-tender wave

2025

−40%

land price per home vs. the 2021 record

Sources: Israel Land Authority tender results via Globes, Ynet, Nadlan Center.

NOWRising now

The first cornerstone was laid in November 2024, and the southern complex is now a forest of cranes. Rainbow's tower is climbing under Ashtrom's cranes. ASHIRA holds a full building permit. UTOPIA broke ground in October 2025. Sales run hot and cold (a ₪19.5 million penthouse here, a pricing war there), and in February 2026 the site delivered its hardest news yet: PFAS contamination in the groundwater, a legacy of decades of firefighting foam, now under a state-run cleanup fast track.

We tell that part too. This site is not selling you a render; it is tracking a district being born, permit by permit, with sources on every number. First residents are expected around 2029. The last crane leaves sometime after 2035.

The Eshkol complex under construction, January 2026 — Drag divider: the same ground, six years apartStas Umansky, Wikimedia Commons (CC) · colour-graded · District records

The cleared Sde Dov airport site, October 2020 — Drag divider: the same ground, six years apartStas Umansky, Wikimedia Commons (CC) · colour-graded · District records

Drone photograph of street and infrastructure works in the Eshkol complex, June 2025 — Streets first: Eshkol infrastructure worksDistrict records

Drone photograph of towers under construction in the Eshkol complex, January 2026 — Eshkol's first towers out of the groundDistrict records

NOW9 projects are already on the field.

The ones you can actually inquire about, with a source on every figure.

All projects and lots

Rendering: Avisror Moshe & SonsLot 101

ASHIRA

Avisror Moshe & Sons · Eshkol · 406 homes

Under construction

Rendering: Israel CanadaLot 111

RAINBOW Tel Aviv

Israel Canada · Eshkol · 459 homes

Under construction

Rendering: Nahmias GroupLot 103

UTOPIA

Nahmias Group · Eshkol · 337 homes

Under construction

from ₪5M

Rendering: Y.H. Dimri / Studio The CraftLot 107

DIMRI YAMA TLV

Y.H. Dimri · Eshkol · 458 homes

Selling now

from ₪3.75M

Rendering: Levinstein / Metropolis / MivneLot 110

ZOHI Tel Aviv

Levinshtein Group · Eshkol · 230 homes

Selling now

from ₪2.48M

Rendering: Gindi HoldingsLot 2206, 2255

GINDI VOGUE

Gindi Holdings · Central · 708 homes

Selling now

Rendering: Hagag Group / ODALot 2270

FIRST by Hagag

Hagag Group · Central · 350 homes

Selling now

Rendering: Electra Residence and Dan Real EstateLot 2208

SEVEN SEAS

Dan Real Estate · Central · 437 homes

Selling now

Rendering: Luzon-RonsonLot 2227

Luzon Ronson, lot 2227

Luzon-Ronson · Central · 340 homes

Selling now

TODAYAs it happens.

Sourced Hebrew coverage, translated, when something on the field actually moves.

All news

14 Sept 2026

A ₪217 million underground substation goes live for north Tel Aviv and Sde Dov

Maariv: the Israel Electric Corporation has connected a new underground substation to the grid at a cost of about ₪217 million, a project Maariv ties to the construction coming in the Sde Dov district. It has two 75 MW transformers, sits about 20 metres underground, took about four years to build, and will serve Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv University and the rest of north Tel Aviv.

Infrastructurevia Maariv

3 Sept 2026

Aviv-Melisron lot 3205 design plan approved: 320 homes and a 40-storey tower

Rova Sde Dov: the Tel Aviv-Jaffa planning subcommittee approved the architectural design plan for North-complex lot 3205, promoted by Aviv-Melisron as "Aviv in Sde Dov". The plan has 320 homes, about 3,800 sqm of employment space and about 1,000 sqm of commerce on a lot of about 6 dunams, with a 40-storey tower. Miloslavsky Architects prepared the plan.

Planningvia Rova Sde Dov

3 Sept 2026

Fuel-tank park design plan approved at the Yarkon mouth

Rova Sde Dov: the Tel Aviv-Jaffa local planning committee approved the design plan for Fuel Tank Park at the Yarkon mouth and recommended it to the district committee and the coastal environment committee. The historic IEC tanks across the Yarkon had already become a night-lit landmark; the winning conversion plan was selected in May 2026.

Planningvia Rova Sde Dov