The brothers Moshe and Yigal Gindi are investing $80 million in the construction of American City Mall on Yavneh Road, Rehovot, which will be Israel's largest shopping centre. The first 25,000 sq.m. of the 50,000 sq.m. centre are already under construction by the principal contractor, Solel Boneh. Solel Boneh will shortly commence the construction of Stage II, on a similar scale. The Gindi brothers are financing the investment out of equity.
American City Mall will only accommodate large stores, of 300 sq.m. and more, and these will be leased only to well-known countrywide chain stores, mostly international. Rent will be relatively low for shopping malls, at $22 per sq.m. per month on average, or 7%-8% of turnover. The developers will build an upper-level free parking lot with 1,200 places. The shopping centre will be built near the Rehovot railway station.
Before marketing officially commenced, the Gindi Brothers marketed a large part of Stage I. Prominent transactions include: the Holmes Place health club chain, which rented 4,000 sq.m. at $19 per sq.m. per month, index-linked, under a 20-year contract with a 10% increment on the rent every five years; Blue Square Co-op purchased 4,000 sq.m. for $2,370 per sq.m., $9.5 million altogether, and will open a branch of the subsidiary Super-Store chain. Official marketing will start next month, and the shopping centre will open in 2001.
The Gindi brothers purchased the land, an area of 40 dunam (10 acres) from private owners a year ago at a price of $16 million, or $400,000 per dunam (0.25 acres). The land purchase is included in the total investment as described above. American City Mall will be four times the size of the Gindi brothers' Golden Mall in Rishon Lezion West. Ziv Schori, aged 44, who formerly managed the Ramat Aviv mall, has been appointed general manager of American City Mall.
Published by Israel's Business Arena October 17, 1999