Ramat Aviv Mall (Hebrew: ) is an upscale
shopping mall
A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...
at 40 Einstein Street, in
Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv
Ramat Aviv Alef or Ramat Aviv HaYeruka, and originally plainly Ramat Aviv ( he, רָמַת אָבִיב, ''lit.'' Spring Heights), is a neighborhood in northwest Tel Aviv, Israel.
History
Ramat Aviv was founded in 1950s following the great inf ...
. At a rent of $1,804 per square meter, it is Israel's most expensive mall and the 35th most expensive mall in the world. It houses many renowned international fashion brands including Louis Vuitton, Emporio Armani, Montblanc, H. Stern, Michael Kors, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Tumi, Longchamp, Tag heuer, Ralph Lauren, Carolina Herrera, Giorgio Armani, Chanel, Rolex, Nespresso, Hugo Boss and many others. Its
gross leasable area
In architecture, construction, and real estate, floor area, floor space, or floorspace is the area (measured as square feet or square metres) taken up by a building or part of it. The ways of defining "floor area" depend on what factors of the buil ...
is 17,800 square meters and it has 140 stores in two retail floors.
[Chayut, Ilanit]
"עזריאלי בראש, מלחה שני"
Globes
A globe is a spherical model of Earth, of some other celestial body, or of the celestial sphere. Globes serve purposes similar to maps, but unlike maps, they do not distort the surface that they portray except to scale it down. A model globe of ...
. 8 November 2010. Above the shopping is an office building called Ramat Aviv Mall Tower.
["Ramat Aviv Mall Tower"]
Emporis. The entire project—tower and mall—has a gross area of about 80,900 square meters.
[ The mall is valued at 1.699 billion ]shekel
Shekel or sheqel ( akk, 𒅆𒅗𒇻 ''šiqlu'' or ''siqlu,'' he, שקל, plural he, שקלים or shekels, Phoenician: ) is an ancient Mesopotamian coin, usually of silver. A shekel was first a unit of weight—very roughly —and became c ...
s, or 470 million dollars.[
]
History
The plan to construct the mall was announced in 1989. This plan was met with hostility by the residents of Ramat Aviv
Ramat Aviv Alef or Ramat Aviv HaYeruka, and originally plainly Ramat Aviv ( he, רָמַת אָבִיב, ''lit.'' Spring Heights), is a neighborhood in northwest Tel Aviv, Israel.
History
Ramat Aviv was founded in 1950s following the great inf ...
, who feared that the mall would damage their quality of life.[Sommer, Allison Kaplan]
"Ramat Aviv Mall opens"
Jerusalem Post. 15 September 1997. Betsy Winer, of the Jerusalem Post, wrote, "I was opposed to its he mall'sconstruction in the first place, citing it as an ugly, unnecessary eyesore - the product of greedy, rapacious entrepreneurs, and having no place in a residential area." Therefore, in 1992, some 30 residents submitted an appeal to the Supreme Court of Israel to prevent Meqarqee Mercaz Ltd., the company which was going to build the mall, from receiving a license to build a shopping mall in Ramat Aviv. This caused a delay of more than a year in constructing the mall and Meqarqee Mercaz sued the residents, claiming damages of approximately $3–5 million from them.["Article: Mall delay causes damages claim. (Meqarqee Mercaz Ltd. sues Ramat Aviv residents who delayed construction)"]
Israel Business Today. 23 May 1993. Construction of the mall began on October 11, 1993.[Olpiner, Dovrat]
"חוות דעת של מומחה שומת נכס - קניו "אביב" ונכסים סמוכים רח' איינשטיין, רח' ברזיל, תל אביב"
Greenberg Olpiner & Co.. 21 May 2007
In November 1996, Lev Leviev, an Orthodox Jew
Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on ...
ish diamond merchant, became the controlling shareholder of Africa Israel, which owned 74% of Meqarqee Mercaz.[Strasler, Nehemia]
"The Ayatollah of Ramat Aviv"
Jerusalem Post. March 5, 1997. Although he first said that "he would not let religious considerations influence the management of the company", in March 1997 he declared that the mall would be closed on Sabbath[ and he required the restaurants in it to be kosher.][Derfner, Larry]
"So tell me - who's a coercer...?"
Jerusalem Post. March 7, 1997. This caused a major controversy and led to protests from Omri Padan, head of McDonald's Israel
McDonald's Israel ( he, מקדונלד'ס ישראל, Meqdonald's Yisra'el) is the Israeli master franchise of the fast food restaurant chain McDonald's. Operated and licensed by Alonyal Limited ( he, אלוניאל בע"מ, ''Alonyal Ba'am''), ...
, from Israel Theaters, and from the residents of Ramat Aviv. Padan's and Israel Theaters' contracts allowed them to operate on weekends[Yudelman, Michal]
"Business as usual in Tel Aviv"
Jerusalem Post. March 15, 1997. and the residents claimed that Leviev's decision violated the secular
Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...
character of their neighborhood.[Keinon, Herb]
"From Rehov Bar-Ilan to Ramat Aviv"
Jerusalem Post. March 18, 1997. Roni Milo
Roni Milo ( he, רוני מילוא, born 26 November 1949) is an Israeli politician, lawyer and journalist, and a former Knesset member who held several ministerial positions. He was also mayor of Tel Aviv from 1993 to 1998.
Political career
B ...
, the mayor of Tel Aviv, even called for a boycott of the shopping mall and Dan Darin, the deputy mayor, stated that the city would not grant Africa Israel new building permits if they were to close the mall on weekends.[ This caused Africa Israel's stock to drop by 20 percent. On May 7, 1997, Africa Israel decided to allow the McDonald's restaurant in the mall to be non-kosher. The mall and the office building above it opened on September 5, 1997.]["קניון רמת-אביב נפתח מחר לתקופת הרצה"]
Globes
A globe is a spherical model of Earth, of some other celestial body, or of the celestial sphere. Globes serve purposes similar to maps, but unlike maps, they do not distort the surface that they portray except to scale it down. A model globe of ...
. September 4, 1997 An arbitrator, Dov Levin, a retired Israeli Supreme Court Justice, was given the right to decide whether or not the cinemas and the restaurants would open on Sabbath. He ruled that they would remain closed because the Tel Aviv bylaws
A by-law (bye-law, by(e)law, by(e) law), or as it is most commonly known in the United States bylaws, is a set of rules or law established by an organization or community so as to regulate itself, as allowed or provided for by some higher authorit ...
, although rarely enforced, state that entertainment spots and eateries must close on Sabbath. The controversy actually pleased the other store owners, who, because of the mass exposure of the mall, profited more than they expected.
In 2006, the McDonald's branch in the mall became kosher. The decision was initiated by McDonald's itself. In late 2007, the administration of the mall announced that it was going to close down the Lev Cinema. This led to some protests. On its place some stores were built, including the first Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...
store in Israel. In April 2009, Africa Israel, which owned 73.4% of the mall, sold its part to Melisron, a company owned by the Ofer Brothers Group, for 1.5 billion shekels. The insurance company Migdal owns the remaining 26.6%.
Description of the mall
Ramat Aviv Mall stretches on an area of 80,876 square meters. This area includes the retail areas, the office areas, the underground and upper parking lots, and the public spaces and parks surrounding the mall.["מליסרון בע"מ - דוחות כספיים ליום 30 יוני 2009"]
. Magna - Distribution Site. June 30, 2009. The main entrance of the mall is in Einstein Street 40, and there are two other entrances in Brazil Street and in Brodetsky Street.[ Approximately 24,000 people visit the mall each day]["קניון רמת אביב"]
Kenyonim.com. and it is considered one of the most successful shopping malls in Israel, if not the most successful.
About 140 stores operate in the shopping mall. There are 3 anchor stores
In retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger tenant in a shopping mall, often a department store or retail chain. They are typically located at the ends of malls. W ...
— Hamashbir Lazarchan, Super-Pharm
Super-Pharm ( he, סופר-פארם) is an Israeli multinational pharmacy chain. It also operates in Poland, Trinidad and Tobago and previously operated in China. Super-Pharm was founded by Murray Koffler with his two oldest children, Leon and Th ...
, and Zara. The fashion stores Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, and Guess opened their first stores in Israel in Ramat Aviv Mall.[ Food companies in the mall include McDonald's, Burger King, ]Arcaffe Arcaffe ( he, ארקפה) is a chain of cafes in Israel with 29 outlets across the country. The chain was established in 1995 with the aim of bringing Italian espresso bars to Israel. Arcaffe launched its international activity by signing a coopera ...
, Sbarro
Sbarro, LLC is an American pizzeria chain that specializes in New York-style pizza sold by the slice and other Italian-American cuisine. In 2011, the company was ranked 15th in foreign sales among U.S.-based quick-serve and fast-casual comp ...
, Boston Deli, and Ilan's House of Coffee.[
The parking lot contains about 1,550 parking spaces.][ There are also about 200 parking spaces on the roof of the mall. About 7,200 people use the parking lot each day.][ Ramat Aviv Mall also has an area of about of offices,][ located primarily in the medical center and in the office building above the mall. The medical center is located on the third floor of the mall and has an area of about . It includes therapy rooms, surgery rooms and resting rooms.][ The office building, with 15 floors and a height of 58 meters,][ comprises an area of about .][ The ]embassies
A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...
of Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...
, Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
, and Croatia
, image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg
, anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capit ...
are situated in the building, along with law firms."נכסים מניבים - קניון רמת אביב"
. Ofer Brothers Group
References
External links
Official site
The office building above the mall
{{Authority control
Buildings and structures in Tel Aviv
Shopping malls in Israel
Shopping malls established in 1997
Tourist attractions in Tel Aviv
1997 establishments in Israel