New TLV Fashion Mall to open this month

Right next to Sarona the Gindi TLV Fashion Mall has just opened its doors. Built on the ruins of the wholesale market, the center contains most fashion brands, including H&M, Zara, Fox, Castro, Factor 54, Forever21, as well as several international brands opening their first shop in Israel, such as COS, Dior Boutique, Zara Home, Rag & Bone, Juicy Couture, or Adidas Originals. Another chain to open up in the mall is Super-Pharm, which just closed its store at the corner of Carlebach and Hahashmonaim. Only a subset of the 180 plus stores scheduled to open in the mall will be open on day 1. On the launching night, the company promised that over 100 stores would be open. The main attractions, such as the COS and Zara Home branches, will not be open on the launching night however; their opening is slated for early April.

The mall was originally scheduled to open in April 2015, but that was postponed several times. According to Gindi TLV CEO Mordi Shabat, the delay was not due to difficulty in finding tenants for the stores. "The late opening of some of the stores resulted from demands by the chains' headquarters overseas, some of them merchants doing business in Israel for the first time, and some of which are undergoing a change in concept," he said, adding, "the engineering complexity of the project, which is part of a complex composed of public centers, not just a shopping center, involves a very difficult engineering challenge, and led to two postponements of the opening date."

Within the mall itself, there is no food area, except for a limited number of fast food shops, including McDonald's and Aroma. On the mall's facade, on the other hand, cafes and restaurants selected for their Tel Aviv ambience are expected to open in an attempt to create a mall that will also attract the tenants in the surrounding towers and both Tel Aviv and non-Tel Aviv residents. Among the restaurants slated to open are familiar names, such as Zozobra, which is opening its first branch in Tel Aviv, a branch of Omer Miller's Susu and Sons, Tatti, and Cafe Europe. A Bistro restaurant and high-quality pizza store are also due to open, to be followed later by popup restaurants, in order to attract a Tel Aviv crowd, which usually spends less time at sites like Hatachana and Sarona.

No large supermarket will be opened in the mall, due to the relatively high rent there, but one is expected to open later just outside. Under the original plan, a branch of Mega was to have opened there, but this was ruled out, and alternatives are now being considered.

Shabat added, "the sports center, which can be entered only through the mall, will be an anchor for the stores, and will ensure that people who do not usually spend time in malls will enter it, including at non-peak times." Shabat then added , "what will arise here is a mixture of commerce, residences, a park, and public buildings. What we have actually done is to bring Ramat Aviv Gimmel to central Tel Aviv. Azrieli and Melisron control the sector, but we'll bring something else here."

Source Globes