DiCaprio-linked luxury hotel at Herzliya Marina gets building approval

Hollywood actor and producer would own 10% of the environmentally friendly, 14-floor, 365-room hotel project first announced in 2018

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio poses for photographers as he arrives for the screening of the movie ‘The Revenant’ in Rome, Friday, Jan. 15, 2016. (AP/Gregorio Borgia)

Plans for a luxury hotel in Herzliya partially owned by American actor and film producer Leonardo DiCaprio moved forward this week when the Tel Aviv District Planning and Building Committee gave its approval for construction.

DiCaprio would have a 10 percent stake in the 14-floor hotel at the Herzliya Marina, the financial news daily Globes reported. The remainder is owned by the real estate giant Hagag Group and the brothers Ahikam and Lior Cohen.

The 51,000-square-meter project will comprise 365 rooms across two buildings. Luxury amenities will include a large swimming pool, a conference center, commercial spaces and restaurants, and a yacht marina accessible directly through the hotel. The plan also includes 8,000 square meters of underground space for parking and other operations

The hotel will be designed for sustainability, meeting US Green Building Council standards for LEED certification. Its environmental focus is a key aspect of DiCaprio’s involvement in the project, in line with his reputation for environmental activism.

The partnership was first announced in 2018, but the original plans were much smaller. A request by the Hagag Group to increase the scope of the project five-fold was the reason it took so long for the project to be approved, Globes said.

“This project… will serve as a model for environmentally friendly hotel development for the entire world,” DiCaprio said in 2018.

An artist’s rendition of the planned Herzliya Marina hotel (Hagag Group)

No projected date has been given for the project’s completion.

DiCaprio’s relationship with Israel goes back at least two decades. He dated Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli for nearly six years after they met at a party in 2005.
Advertisement
In 2011, he invested $4 million in an Israeli social photo and video-sharing app called Mobli that shut down in 2016.

In 2021, he invested an undisclosed sum in Rehovot-based cultured meat startup Aleph Farms, part of a $105 million financing round for the maker of alternative meat products. The company raised an additional $29 million earlier this year, but is believed to be struggling, according to Israeli media reports.

DiCaprio rose to movie fame in the 1990s with films like “Titanic” and has since earned critical praise for performances in “The Aviator,” “Inception,” “The Revenant” — for which he won an Academy Award — and “Killers of the Flower Moon.” His net worth is said to be in the ballpark of $300 million.