Batei Saidoff

Erected by Yitzhak Saidoff, a wealthy Bukharan Jew, in 1911, it was one of a series of courtyard neighborhoods built along Jaffa Road in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, together with Sha'arei Yerushalayim and Ohel Shlomo.

[1] In the 2000s the two buildings facing Jaffa Road were evacuated of tenants and redeveloped as upscale shops, and a 23-story luxury residential tower was constructed south of the courtyard.

[4] In 1999 a renewal plan promoted by a group of homeowners called for the construction of a seven-story residential tower on the site of Batei Saidoff.

[8] In following years, the plan changed to that of a 23-story luxury residential tower consisting of 90 penthouses and duplexes, ranging from three to six rooms each, to be erected south of the courtyard.

[10] The high-rise proposal aroused opposition from conservation groups, who contested it in the Israeli Supreme Court, but the project received building rights in 2008.