Azrieli Center mall owner David Azriele is planning to build the largest shopping mall in Israel, to be called the Mall of Israel. In a “Globes” interview, Azrieli said the 300,000 sq.m. mall would be constructed in the central region.
No affordable site has been found yet for the mall. The project, still in the planning stage, will cost an estimated $250 million. Azrieli said he planned to invest hundreds of millions of shekels in Israel.
The new mall will include features copied from the largest US shopping mall, called the Mall of America, located in Minneapolis. The Mall of Israel will have a cinema complex, ice-skating rink, child entertainment center, roller-coaster, fashion shops, restaurants, and other stores.
”Israel can use a very large national shopping mall, a mega mall. I’m talking about a location on the Geha highway, between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. We’ll build a shopping and entertainment center, with amusements and games, plus a big movie house,” Azrieli said. Concerning the retail complex Haim Sakal is building, Azrieli commented, “The fact is that I didn’t take that place.”
The Azrieli group finished 2002 with proceeds of NIS 3.2 billion from seven shopping centers: the Ayalon, Azrieli Center, and Margalit malls, the Outlet mall in Herzliya, and malls in the Negev, Jerusalem, and Holon. These shopping centers contain about 1,000 businesses with average proceeds of $480 per sq.m.
Israel has 30 large shopping malls with estimated annual proceeds of NIS 15 billion, of which the Azrieli group has a 23% share, making it the largest group in the sector in Israel. Four of its malls (Ayalon, Azrieli, Jerusalem, and the Negev) are among the 10 strongest malls in Israel.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on April 9 2003