# The story of Sde Dov > From the 1938 airfield to the district now rising: a dated, sourced account. Canonical: https://shavnu.com/story --- ## 1938: The 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. ## 1970s: Half a century of tug-of-war 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. ## 2020: A district drawn from scratch Masterplan TA/4444 was validated in March 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. ## 2021: The 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. ## NOW: Rising 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. ## Dated timeline - **1938-09-03**: Sde Dov (Dov Hoz) Airport opens. The airfield opened on 3 September 1938 during the Arab Revolt, as Tel Aviv's alternative to Lydda. Palestine Airways flew from here; it later became an RAF base and the home of Israel's first air-force squadron. - **2012-07-03**: Masterplan TA/3700 approved for the northwest Tel Aviv coast. The outline plan for about 1,900 dunams of the northwest coast is approved, the envelope that later holds district plan TA/4444. - **2012-12-05**: Government approves evacuation of Sde Dov airport. The government backs trading the airfield for housing, the decision that starts the long close-down. - **2014-09-03**: Program set at 16,000 housing units. The steering committee, with city engineer Oded Gvuli, updates the program to 16,000 homes: the figure that still defines the district. - **2015-06-06**: Defense Ministry takes ₪1B for early evacuation. The state pays about a billion shekels so the army will leave the field before the original timetable. - **2016-02-26**: Supreme Court sets evacuation for January 2019. The court postpones the final evacuation date to January 2019, locking the close of the 81-year airfield. - **2019-06-30**: Sde Dov Airport closes after 81 years. The last flight leaves; the final IAF sortie goes to Hatzor, and Eilat receives ₪400M in compensation. The field had moved 703,649 passengers in its last full year. - **2019-07-31**: Runway demolition begins. Demolition of the runway starts; the site is fully vacated by early 2020. Only the control tower is kept as a historic building. - **2020-02-10**: Evacuation of Sde Dov is complete. After 81 years, the IDF and civil evacuation of the airfield is finished. - **2020-03-12**: District plan TA/4444 validated. The Sde Dov district plan is validated: about 16,000 homes on 1,500 dunams, three complexes, parks, hotels, and two kilometres of beach. - **2021-03-01**: ILA issues the first Sde Dov housing tender. The Israel Land Authority tenders 1,916 units in the Eshkol section, including 324 long-term rental apartments. - **2021-08-23**: Record first-tender results: ₪4.4B for 1,540 homes. Winners pay about ₪2.8M in land per apartment, 6.5 times the minimum. Avisror, K.M. Madaf 5, Meshulam Levinstein + Allied, G.Z. Madaf 35, and Israel Canada (480 units, ~₪1.3B) take plots. - **2021-12-02**: Shikun & Binui wins 324 long-term rental units. Lot 109 in Eshkol goes to Shikun & Binui through the government Dira LeHaskir tender. - **2022-03-22**: Follow-up tender cools: 241 units for ₪654M. A smaller Eshkol follow-up closes at about ₪2.71M of land per unit, well below the 2021 frenzy. - **2022-03-28**: Claude Nahmias wins a RAMI tender in Eshkol. Nahmias Group wins an Israel Land Authority tender to build apartments in Complex A / Eshkol, the plot that becomes UTOPIA on lot 103. - **2022-04-12**: Shikun & Binui wins 511 more rental units. A second Dira LeHaskir win gives Shikun & Binui lot 106: 511 long-term rental apartments. - **2023-05-10**: First Eshkol design plans approved. About two years after the first big tender, the local committee approves the first architectural design plans in the southern complex. - **2024-02-20**: Reut Rehabilitation Hospital campus approved. A new campus for Reut Hospital, relocating from Yad Eliyahu, is approved on the former airfield. - **2024-03-26**: First building permit in the district: Rainbow excavation. Israel Canada's RAINBOW on lot 111 receives the first excavation-and-shoring permit in Sde Dov. - **2024-07-25**: Dimri buys Mor Group's lot 107 for ₪1.1B. Y.H. Dimri enters Sde Dov after Hanan Mor's ₪3.2B debt settlement, paying ₪1.1B for land Mor had won at ₪1.5B in 2021. - **2024-08-19**: Local committee gives final validation to Central and North plans. The detailed plans for the two remaining complexes (thousands of homes north of Eshkol) are finally validated. - **2024-09-01**: ILA launches its biggest wave: 7,159 units. Ten tenders in the Center and North plans go to market, land for more than 7,100 homes, with a headline value of about ₪25B. - **2024-11-11**: First cornerstone laid at ASHIRA. Avisror lays the first cornerstone in the district on lot 101, the moment construction of the new neighborhood becomes visible. - **2024-12-25**: All Sde Dov tenders postponed after two appeals. Wind-regime and land-rights appeals against the detailed plans freeze the mega-tender; further postponements follow into 2025. - **2025-02-19**: Central-district winners: 4,191 units for about ₪6B. Land prices come in about 40% below 2021. Winners include Israel Brothers, Gindi Holdings (two plots), Electra Residence + Dan Nadlan (Nahor), Luzon Ronson, Hagag Group (350 units, ~₪756M), and A.A.I. Abu + Tomer Koko. - **2025-03-04**: Prashkovsky wins both long-term-rental tenders (966 units). Bidding with Dira LeHaskir, Prashkovsky takes both rental tenders: 966 apartments that will not be sold on the private market. - **2025-03-16**: Dan Real Estate buys a private-land plot for ~₪600M. 260 units plus 300 sqm of commerce, in a combination deal that beat Gindi, Electra, Azorim, and Zemach Hammerman. - **2025-03-26**: North-district tenders close: 2,744 units, ₪4.59B. Winners include Y.H. Dimri (275), Calanit, Shikun & Binui + Shapir, Aviv/Melisron (320), Euro Israel (360), Luzon Ronson + Shimon Amir, Yossi Avrahami, Tashluz (177), Mediterranean Towers (300 senior units), and A.M. Israel + Union Living (rental). A first-four-tenders subset of 1,737 units is reported the next day. - **2025-06-03**: Gindi prices VOGUE from ₪49,000 per sqm. The Central-complex launch undercuts the district average by tens of percent; around 700 apartments sell within weeks. - **2025-07-11**: Hagag launches FIRST. The ODA-designed 45-floor sea-line tower on lot 2270 goes to market; 46 sales follow in two months. - **2025-08-27**: Israel Canada's average Rainbow deal hits ₪11M. A record average for the project: 234 units sold for ₪2B. - **2025-09-17**: Court approves the Big Bloc rights table for 1,892 owners. A historic ruling settles the division of the privately owned land inside the old airport: the 50-year fight over HaGush HaGadol. - **2025-10-01**: Rainbow receives a full building permit. Israel Canada's RAINBOW on lot 111, which already held the district's first excavation permit, receives a full building permit. - **2025-12-22**: Dimri launches Dimri Yama TLV from ₪3.75M. 458 units on lot 107, about ₪1.07B of investment, two-room apartments from ₪3.75M. - **2026-01-01**: Rainbow moves to execution with Ashtrom. Israel Canada picks Ashtrom as contractor for ~₪736M. Works start in January 2026 on the tower, reported 70% pre-sold. - **2026-01-21**: Six Center and North plots approach building permits. Design-plan approvals are fast-tracked a year after the land was marketed. - **2026-01-27**: ZOHI launches. Levinstein, Mivne, and Metropolis/Allied put 230 low-rise units on lot 110 on sale from ₪70,000 per sqm. - **2026-02-04**: PFAS groundwater contamination announced. The Environment Ministry and the Israel Land Authority disclose firefighting-foam chemicals in the old airport's groundwater. Investigations widen; delays to the ~16,000-unit build-out are possible. - **2026-03-12**: ASHIRA receives a full building permit. Avisror's lot 101, which tested clean of contamination, gets a full permit: the first among the flagship marketed towers. - **2026-05-14**: Remaining tenders stall after 12 postponements. A 217-unit Central-district tender has been postponed 12 times since September 2024; other leftover tenders are also stuck. - **2026-06-02**: Sales slowdown across the district. Q1 filings show the pace collapsing. Israel Canada has sold about 300 units at ₪85,700/sqm on average; a late-May report says almost half of Dimri's sales were to the controlling shareholder. - **2026-07-08**: Green Line light-rail progress update. The municipality presents a southern-section timetable, with Mayor Huldai. Four stations will serve the district: Propes, Nofei Yam, Einstein, and Zahara Levitov. - **2026-08-05**: First buyer lawsuit over contamination. An option-holder sues Gindi Holdings for a ~₪500K refund after the PFAS findings. - **2026-08-16**: Fifth water line gets a green light. Approval of Tel Aviv's fifth water line is framed as paving the way to occupying Sde Dov. --- Source: https://shavnu.com/story on Shavnu, an independent English guide to the Sde Dov district in Tel Aviv. Figures come from the public record: Israel Tax Authority transaction reports, Tel Aviv GIS, tender results and the Hebrew press.