Episode summary: Jerusalem's skyline is filling with luxury towers and new hotels, but the city's poverty rate hovers around 40%. When developers go bankrupt, who's left holding the concrete? This episode unpacks the legal mechanics of failed developments — from receivership to municipal liability — and explores whether buildings can be designed for adaptive reuse from day one. Can a high-rise switch from residential to hotel without demolition? We break down the engineering principles that could prevent the next ghost tower. Show Notes Jerusalem is in the middle of a construction boom, with luxury towers and hotels reshaping its skyline. But beneath the cranes lies a precarious bet: the average new luxury unit costs 3.2 million shekels, while nearly 40% of families live below the poverty line. When developers go bust — as one 25-story tower in Talpiot already has — the city can end up holding the bag. Under Israeli law, a bankrupt developer's building becomes an asset of the bankruptcy estate. If no buyer emerges, the court can declare the structure "ownerless," and municipal liability kicks in. Demolishing a single 30-story tower can cost up to 80 million shekels — more than six times the city's entire annual emergency structural budget. The episode explores a smarter path: adaptive reuse. By designing buildings with uniform column grids, raised access floors, demountable partitions, and oversized service cores, developers can create structures that easily switch between residential, office, and hotel use. This approach hedges against market failure and prevents the waste of land and public money. The question isn't just who pays when a bet goes wrong — it's whether we can build so that failure doesn't mean demolition. Listen online: https://myweirdprompts.com/episode/jerusalem-ghost-towers-liability