Israel's biggest mall to be built in Beersheba

Article published on Ynetnews.com July 6, 2009
By Ilana Curiel

County's first green shopping center to be built in southern city at total investment of NIS 700,000. Construction scheduled to be completed in 2012

"This is my life's work," entrepreneur Eli Lahav, CEO of the Lahav Group, stated last week in reference to the Beersheba Mall, which is planned to stretch over an area of about 100,000 square meters at an investment of NIS 700 million (about $180.5 million).

According to Lahav, the mall – which is scheduled to be ready in three years – will be the biggest in Israel and the first green shopping center in the country.

Shem Tov Tzruya, head of the architects' team at the Moore Yasky Sivan company, spoke of the mall's green characteristics, which will be a consumption, recreation and social center for residents of the Negev's capital and its surroundings.

Alongside the green design, which saves on energy, the mall's appearance is also aimed at making an impression and breaking the city's desert-like appearance.

Simulation of new mall

Lahav and Tzruya made the remarks at a ceremony held Sunday in the Negev's capital to expose the project.

The mall's main entrance will have three waterfalls. "The water expresses prosperity and life," explained Tzruya. In addition, the mall will include a pool for collecting rain water and air-conditioner water and reusing it for irrigation, as well as use of natural illumination and solar energy.

A green park will be built near the mall on an area of about 8,000 square meters. Special bicycle lanes will be developed around the mall.

"On the roof we'll have thousands of photo-volt cells in order to save on energy. A special glass will be installed at the entrance to the mall which will be transparent without absorbing the sun's energy," explained Tzruya.

According to the entrepreneurs, the mall will be twice bigger than the Ramat Aviv Mall in Tel Aviv. It will have 40,000 square meters of commercial area for rental, 1,800 parking spots, and about 5,000 square meters for recreation and leisure.

The transfer of the IDF bases to the Negev and the fact that the land reserves in central Israel are increasingly disappearing have led Lahav to realize that Beersheba could be the next economic center.

'A huge youth cultural center'

The mall will be built on the ruins of the nostalgic (Neot Midbar) Desert Inn Hotel. The recreation and leisure center created is expected to serve hundreds of thousands of the region's residents.

"When I was offered to buy Neot Midbar, it took me a few second to realize the deal's potential, and within 24 hours everything was already signed," explained Lahav, who was born in Beersheba.

"They asked me 'why Beersheba?', and I said, 'The news will come out of Beersheba.' This is one of the leading consumers' cities in Israel, a district city with half a million people. This is the next great thing. This is a world view, a concept, a center combining recreation and leisure and a communal center. This is in fact a huge youth cultural center."

Lahav aspires to turn the mall into the residents' second home. The mall will take part in activity for the communal life together with municipality bodies for all layers of the population, including hosting classes encouraging local handiwork, a center for youth movements and soldiers' meeting, a recreation center for children, and a golden age club.

Behind the social aspect hides a financial motive as well. Beersheba is already filled with shopping centers, and therefore the Beersheba mall must make itself particularly attractive for the audience it is slated to serve.

Avi Shayat, Lahav Group's business development manager, explained that this would also leverage the business-economic activity in the city.

"The more you stay here the level of expenditure per capita rises, and the proceeds increase," said Shayat.

The army is also a key part of the business. "There will be shuttles from the bases to the mall. Those going on leave won't escape. In the night the soldiers will be driven back to the bases."

'Mall will be a source of inspiration'

"People will come and learn from us. The mall will be a source of inspiration," said Lahav. "We are creating a public center."

He added that the mall would be planned as an inseparable part of the city, but that this would not hurt the other centers. "There will be a battle on giving better service. There is room both for that and for that."

The mall's construction is expected to being in 2010, but the earth works have already begun. The construction is expected to end in 2012. In the area near the mall the municipality is interested in setting up a hotel, and the Lahav Group is competing for the area in a tender.

Some 300,000 vehicles pass every day on the Toviyahu Boulevard route, where the mall will be built. 35% of the city's population lives at a distance of 1.5 kilometers from the mall.

No one was wise enough to realize the potential hiding in this valued area so far, and Lahav decided to build his life's work, his vision, in the area: A metropolitan commercial center combining communal activity.

However he is still asked, "Why Beersheba?"

"Beersheba and the Negev are about to undergo a revolution in the coming years," says Yaakov Ben Yizri, president of the commerce bureau in the Negev. This is a good enough reason to understand why Beersheba of all places."

Tel Aviv celebrates 'White Night'

Article on Ynetnews May 28, 2009
By Josh Lichtenstein

Third annual festival honoring city's status as World Heritage Site marked with night of partying. Restaurants, bars, cafés remain open all night, with free concerts and cultural activities across city.

On Wednesday night Tel Aviv celebrated its third annual “White Night” festival with parties and special events throughout the city. Bars, restaurants, and cultural institutions kept their doors open late into the night creating a vibrant atmosphere across the city.

The city has been holding the event for the past three years to celebrate its UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) status as a World Heritage Site.
Tel Aviv has been recognized around the world for its beautiful Bauhaus style architecture and rich cultural heritage. Lining Rothschild Boulevard and Bialik Street, buildings were illuminated with special lighting. The city offered guided tours of the architecture along Bialik street. The streets were filled with people, many dressed in white, all joining together to party in beautiful Tel Aviv.

So much to see

Throughout Tel Aviv cultural events took place late into the night. Most of the events were free to the public , which allowed more people to take part. In the station complex of the Neve Tzedek neighborhood, the Gesher Theatre company performed selected acts from William Shakespeare's “The Twelfth Night”. In the Sharon Garden of Hahashmal Park, Israeli Opera soloists performed a special concert of Israeli songs accompanied by piano. Elsewhere, the Tel Aviv Opera House presented a midnight showing of a selection of popular operas.

The flea market in Jaffa stayed open late allowing shoppers to wonder through art galleries, restaurants, and cafes. The biggest parties took place along the beach where people danced and partied to the sound of live music and deejays. Mante Ray beach held a huge free party sponsored by Club Med with free music and dancing. Bars and cafes near the water were packed with people. There was an amazing amount of energy in the air with the all the activities going on throughout the city.

Incredible nightlife

Gabriel Rosenberg, a Tel Aviv resident who recently moved to the city, described his first “White Night” experience to Ynet saying, “White night is an unbelievable event where people from all around Tel Aviv can get together and enjoy incredible nightlife and an atmosphere that compares to no other place on earth. Where else can you find so many beautiful people and live music in one place, together with such amazing weather?“

The city of Tel Aviv invested NIS 350,000 (roughly $90,000) in this year's events. Surprisingly, the Florentine neighborhood, which is a major party hub during Purim and Independence Day celebrations, did not hold any events.

Arad takes a personal approach to promote itself as 'recycling city'

Article on The Jerusalem Post May 16, 2009
By Ehud Zion Waldoks

Arad has launched a project to rebrand itself as the "recycling city." The Negev town has begun to encourage all forms of recycling, from paper and plastic to old clothes.

Yet what is unique about the project are not the technical aspects. Their tools are the same as in other Israeli cities: cages for plastic bottles, containers for batteries and cylinders for paper. There are no advanced technological elements.

Instead, the focus of the project is on the people: on cooperation and collaboration.

Arad Municipality building

The project began as an unusual collaboration among a foreign donor, the Jewish National Fund (JNF), the Environmental Protection Ministry, the local environmental unit, the municipality and the Or Movement, which seeks to encourage settlement in the Negev.

The idea was first raised by Jay Ruderman, president of the Ruderman Family Charitable Foundation out of Boston. Ruderman runs all of his family foundation's day-to-day activities from Israel, having made aliya three-and-a-half years ago.

"Where I lived [in Boston] we were recycling everything. So I tried to think of a way to improve recycling in Israel," he told The Jerusalem Post recently. "We approached the JNF because they have a project to develop the Negev. We shopped the idea around and Arad was the most interested."

This is the foundation's first foray into an environmental education endeavor, but Ruderman hopes it will become a model which can be replicated across the Negev and throughout Israel.

The foundation has been active in other types of educational activities both here and in the Boston area.

For Ruderman, the partnership aspects were critical.

"Partnerships maximize what you can do," he said.

JNF CEO Russell Robinson sees a similar potential in the program.

"The Negev is the new frontier for the 21st century. The Negev is languishing. Arad went from a middle-class city to a depressed one. Beersheba was losing its population until two years ago.

"You need to bring 500,000 people in the next 10 to 15 years. People need to take pride in their community and their city and this kind of project could do that.

"Recycling is very tangible - the visual of all the plastic bottles collected brings better understanding. And of course, if it works in Arad, it can be replicated elsewhere," he told the Post.

All across the South, Robinson pointed out, environmental projects are beginning to sprout up in the scattered communities. The JNF has invested significant sums in various projects and plans to continue to invest in the upcoming years.

"There's the Timna National Park which brings in 250,000-300,000 visitors. Kibbutz Lotan is an environmental showcase. There's a farmers market in Yahel and our idea is to create a bike path from Yahel to Eilat with kiosks at every stop," he said.

The JNF plans to invest $2m.-$3m. in that project.

Nitzana has also moved to adopt ecological principles with a recycling teaching center and other aspects.

In addition to the collaborative nature of its conception and inception, the Arad recycling program focuses on tailoring recycling to the needs of the city's individual communities. Instead of just placing cages and containers around the city and running a PR campaign, the planners have involved the public from the very first.

"We started off by holding a public hearing about the project. There were 750 seats and every one of them was filled," Ayala Guber-Avrahamy of the Eastern Negev Environmental Unit recalled. The unit services Arad, Tamar, and Yeroham.

Since the hearing, the public has been involved with every aspect of planning and execution. It's a bottom-up model, rather than top down, Guber-Avrahamy said.

"Our success is measured by our ability to involve the community, to get them to understand the value added," she said. A community-based process is considered more sustainable in the long run, according to community organizing professionals.

Moreover, since recycling is largely based on citizens' willingness to participate and separate their garbage at home, it's particularly amenable to the planners' strategy.

"We met with every community in order to understand what their needs were," said Svivotichnun's Hagit Naalei Yosef, whose firm was brought in to plan the program.

"Sometimes the community doesn't connect to the collection receptacles, and sometimes they are in the wrong place," she noted.

"When we talked to the community of people with disabilities, for example, they mentioned that the holes in the cages for plastic bottles were too high for them," Guber-Avrahamy said.

"They also suggested that pupils who have to fulfill their community service obligations could come by their houses on a regular basis to pick up all sorts of plastic to recycle," Naalei Yosef said.

The local haredi community is also involved.

"In the Gur Hassidic community, they recycle pregnancy clothes. At one of the local schools, we've started a uniform-shirt recycling program, where pupils bring the shirts they've outgrown for the younger ones," Guber-Avrahamy added.

To the best of her knowledge, Guber-Avrahamy said, a community involvement model like this hasn't been tried anywhere else in Israel to encourage recycling.

Looking to the future, Guber-Avrahamy said they were in talks with a plastic recycling company about recycling types of plastic other than plastic bottles.

"They work with a lot of factories, but they've never worked with a municipality before," she said, "We're thinking about having the sorting done by people with special needs."