Two years after announcing that it would build a shopping mall near Glilot Junction, sources inform "Globes" that Canada Israel now wants the land rezoned for residences and protected housing. Canada Israel has filed a request to change the amount of space zoned for commerce from 30,000 square meters to 10,000 square meters. It is believed that the company was unable to recruit enough retailers. "No one wanted to put their money down because they feared competition," the sources said.
Canada Israel paid betterment tax on the basis of the existing urban building plan only two months ago, but has now decided that it wants to replace its current rights, which include only protected housing and commerce, with rights that will enable the company to construct housing.
Canada Israel's original plan was to build a stylish closed mall with international brands not yet doing business in Israel, and to offer Israeli brands fairly large commercial spaces, with additional space being allocated to residences and protected housing. Former Azrieli Malls CEO Peer Nadir was appointed to take charge of planning and development for the project.
Nadir left his position six months ago, however, and a 16-man team, including architects, consultants, and marketers, started working on a new plan. The reason is believed to be difficulties in raising money for the project and in recruiting retailers, due to fear of competition, and possibly also the close cooperation that most chains have with other shopping mall groups and concern about cannibalization.
The Glilot site is a strategic junction and a strong attraction in an area in which tens of thousands of housing units are already being marketed or constructed in Ramat Hasharon, Herzliya, and northern Tel Aviv. 15 years ago, when the IKEA furniture store chain came to Israel, Glilot was one of the places it considered for a store. Two large malls were planned opposite each other on the site: BIG Fashion Glilot (by the BIG group) and Blue Mall. The launching of the two malls was slated for late 2018.
BIG Fashion Glilot, located opposite Canada Israel's site, is in the advanced stages. This project consists of an open fashion mall with 25,000 square meters according to the concept of BIG Fashion Ashdod, but slightly more upmarket. Investment in this project, including the price of the land, is estimated at NIS 1 billion.
Canada Israel said, "The rights for the space have not been changed at all. We are considering the possibility of increasing the space for protected housing at the expense of some of the commercial space, and the entire professional team, other than Peer Nadir, is currently assessing all the possible options to maximize and make the land as useful as possible"
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on June 29, 2017
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2017