The Vert Hotel – a new-old feature of Jerusalem’s hopeful hotel industry

The view from the 21st floor of the Business and Diplomats Lounge of the recently opened Vert Hotel in Jerusalem is nothing short of breathtaking. Large windows offer a 180-degree perspective of the panorama of Jerusalem, and on a clear day, one can see right into Jordan.

It is also obvious from this height why the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) put a stop to construction of the new Prime Minister’s Office and Residence on the site initially chosen. Anyone standing on the 21st floor of the hotel, with or without a telescope, would have a perfect view of the comings and goings in the prime minister’s compound.

Other high-rise towers are planned in the immediate vicinity.

But for the foreseeable future, the Vert stands over and above its neighbors.

The building in itself is not new, although the interior has undergone a major renovation.

When the hotel opened some 40 years ago, it was the first Hilton hotel in Jerusalem, and the only luxury hotel within a five-kilometer radius. It later became the Jerusalem Crowne Plaza as part of the Africa Israel Group, then headed by Lev Leviev. Four years ago, Africa Israel Hotels were bought out by the Dayan family of 12 siblings, who have hotel and real estate interests in Israel and abroad.

In keeping with current green trends, they renamed the Jerusalem facility Vert, made it non-smoking, and so far, serve meat only through room service and in the dining room on Shabbat and Jewish holidays. Otherwise, the menu comprises dairy foods, salads and fish.

The hotel, though of a higher standard than in the past, is not as large as it used to be.

Of the 388 rooms and suites that were part of the original structure, only 138 have been allocated to the Vert Hotel, and 250 had been remodeled and fitted with kitchenettes to solve the problem of the elderly residents of the Diplomat Hotel at the other end of town.

In June, 2014, the American Embassy purchased the Diplomat, which had been used by the Aliyah and Integration Ministry to house more than 400 senior citizens, most of them immigrants from the former Soviet Union. The Americans were very patient in allowing the residents to remain until they received an alternative accommodation. In the interim, some residents died, and others moved elsewhere, but the overwhelming majority remained at the Diplomat until a permanent solution could be found.

The two sections of the former Crowne Plaza are completely isolated from each other, with a wall between them and separate entrances.

The hotel section also has a new general manager in the person of Sheldon Ritz, long known as the diplomat’s diplomat at the King David Hotel, with which he was identified for more than 20 years.

Ritz, who was born in Durban, South Africa, has the hotel business in his DNA. His grandfather owned hotels, and Ritz’s boyhood dream was to be a hotel general manager. After graduating from the M.L. Sultan Hotel School in Durban and undertaking a couple of hotel courses at Cornell University in New York, Ritz relocated to Israel in 1992, and within a few months, landed a job as assistant banquet manager at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, the flagship hotel in the Dan chain. He remained there for four years, and then moved down the road to what is now the David Citadel, but which was then the Jerusalem Hilton (the original Jerusalem Hilton having already been renamed).

Ritz was there for the opening of the hotel and for the visit in 1998 by US president Bill Clinton, who together with his entourage took up 385 rooms for four nights. It was an amazing coup over the King David, which Ritz describes as “the Blair House of Jerusalem.” 

Indeed, it was this perspective that caused him to return to the King David in his former position. But Ritz had greater ambitions, and in 2000 opened his own business whereby he brought people from overseas to Israel for corporate and family events. In 2003, the intifada put a significant stop to trips to Israel, forcing Ritz to close his business. In 2004, he was back at the King David, again as assistant banquet manager, a factor that did not make him happy, but at least he was working in a prestigious hotel.

Fortunately, Haim Shkedi, the long-time general manager of the King David, recognized Ritz’s potential, and gave him the opportunity to prove it. Ritz worked his way up through the ranks of the hotel ladder, eventually becoming Shkedi’s deputy responsible for dealing with diplomats and foreign delegations. 

Always able to deliver on requests, even when there were two or three foreign delegations in the hotel at the one time, never flustered, familiar with protocol and unerringly polite, Ritz did such a good job that he was moved to head office where he was in charge of marketing and sales to embassies and government ministries.

However, whenever there was a very important foreign delegation, he was recalled to the King David for temporary duty, and eventually returned there full time.

Ritz has an enviable reputation in the hotel industry, and over the years he received several offers to leave the Dan chain and to join another hotel chain. But he had immense loyalty to the King David, to Shkedi, who he says was his mentor, and to the Federmann family, which has the controlling interest in the Dan chain.

BUT SUCH loyalty, coupled with devotion to duty has a price. Ritz had hoped that when Shkedi retired in early 2020 after 43 years with the Dan chain and 25 as general manager of the King David, that he would be tapped to succeed him. But no. 

Ritz was so good at his job as No. 2, that there was no chance of him being promoted to No. 1.

It was a lot easier to find someone with the qualifications for general manager than it was to find someone with Ritz’s talent for engaging people, and to be unstintingly obliging.

When Tamir Kobrin, a native Jerusalemite who had spent many years in luxury hotels abroad was appointed general manager of the King David, Ritz stayed on as his assistant and even helped to promote him to the media.

But then came an offer that he could not refuse. 

Africa Israel wanted him to be the general manager of its new Vert Hotel, and aside from dangling a much improved salary, also gave him a free hand to make whatever decisions he saw fit.

When he wanted to use the Presidential Suite for VIP cocktail receptions and asked permission to move the furniture out of the living room, the response was “Sheldon, you’re the general manager. Do what you want.”

Ritz admits that he left the King David with a heavy heart, but at age 55, he realized that if he did not follow his dream now, there might never be another opportunity for his aspirations to become a reality.

He is still becoming acclimatized to his new role, and is thrilled that in its first week of operations, the Vert hosted 80 guests – people who wanted to say that they had been there from the very beginning.

He is confident that there will be many diplomats among his future guests, because it will be more convenient for those who are visiting the Foreign Ministry or the Knesset to come to the Vert than to go to one of the luxury hotels on the other side of town. They can come for breakfast, lunch or dinner, or simply to relax in the 21st floor lounge, where they can get refreshments, enjoy the view or work if they have to. There are computers in a cubicle in the lounge at the disposal of business people and diplomats.

The fact that the hotel is at the entrance to the city cuts down considerably on travel time. Sometimes getting into or out of Jerusalem takes longer than traveling from the outskirts of Jerusalem to Tel Aviv.

Aside from that, the hotel takes comfort and aesthetics into account.

It starts with the circular front desk in the entrance lobby, which enables incoming guests to register quickly instead of having to stand in line.

The dining room is only a couple of meters away with strategically distanced tables for two, four, six and eight, and one corner reserved for a larger group.

In the corridor in front of the dining room, there are separate buffets to avoid crowding and to enable people with specific tastes to go straight for what they like best.

In addition, there’s a bar opposite the buffet with various salads and hot delicacies including small personal shakshukas served in mini skillets.

Inside the dining room there’s also a buffet of cereals and stewed fruits.

The lobby has clusters of armchair sofas and coffee tables in various styles and colors

Among the amenities are a large swimming pool that is covered in winter so as to enable guests to swim year-round; a well-equipped gymnasium; six treatment rooms for massages and a sauna; and balconies attached to every guest room.

Ritz, who at the King David greeted five American presidents plus personalities such Prince Charles and Prince William, Narendra Modi, Silvio Berlusconi, Giorgio Napolitano, Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy, Emmanuel Macron, King Hussein, Hosni Mubarak, Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler, Warren Buffett and so many others too numerous to mention, is hopeful that he will also be able to host royals, heads of state, prime ministers and foreign ministers at the Vert, which he says has an advantage security wise, in that the Presidential Suite, which was once Leviev’s home away from home, is sealed off from other rooms, has three separate entrances, and of course a spectacular view. Not only is it suitable for heads of state, but also for internationally renowned rabbis, in that the kitchen in the suite has two entirely separate stainless steel sinks, which can be easily kashered to meet the rabbi’s requirements, plenty of counter space, a glass topped stove and an oven.

The dining room table can comfortably accommodate 10 people; and the large living room has an artificial fireplace, replete with "wood" logs and a giant television screen.

The bedroom has a large double bed, a work table, lots of drawers and a walk-in closet; and the bathroom has a closed door toilet, a large jacuzzi, a shower stall and a sauna.

But perhaps from the perspective of the Foreign Ministry as well as that of foreign embassies, all of which are on tight budgets, is the issue of affordability.

All new hotels charge running-in prices. The Vert, which is no exception, will charge considerably less than the average $360-$400 per room per night that most embassies pay.

The benefit for the bona fide tourist is location. The hotel is within a 10-15-minute walk of Mahaneh Yehuda, museums, the Knesset, the Supreme Court, Cinema City, the National Library and even less with public transport.