Welcome to Beersheva – Israel’s mall capital

July 7, 2009 - 8:36 AM by Nicky · 7 Comments
Filed under: Business, Environment, General, Life

mall-lahav-beer-sheva A couple of months ago we were on our way back from Eilat with friends when the kids started to get hungry and fractious. We decided to stop in Beersheva.

My memories of Beersheva were of some hot dusty town with a dilapidated center, and a few basic restaurants that looked like they were decorated in the 1980s. Our friends, who had lived in the nearby army base of Hazerim for some years, took us on a short cut from the main road through a neighborhood and then out into the retail district of the city.

The sheer size of this area was flabbergasting. We drove from one power outlet or outdoor mall, to another – seven in total – all seemingly lined up one after the other. There were so many restaurants and cafes to choose from that we actually got confused. It went on and on for miles, and because it was a Saturday evening, the roads were heaving with people.

Hundreds of shops, restaurants, cinemas, bowling alleys. It was as if we had taken a wrong turn out of the barren and empty Negev desert straight into America. “It’s the biggest mall in Israel,” our friends told us, and we certainly weren’t going to argue that point.

Well not any more. Apparently the biggest mall in Israel is just about to be built. Where? In Beersheva, of course.

The Lahav Group has announced that it plans to build the Beersheva Mall over a stretch of about 100,000 sq. meters at a cost of $180.5m. The shopping center, 2km from the old city, and 3km from the central bus station, is due to be completed in 2012, and what makes this entirely different from all the other malls, apparently, is that it’s going to be the first green shopping center in the country. This means recycling rainwater, solar panels, and a few bike lanes.

What it also means is that the citizens of Beersheva and the environs will have yet another mall to shop at. How many stores can one town possibly need?

Maybe this is what happens to desert towns. Maybe in a boiling, often inhospitable climate, shopping is the only resort. But it seems to me, and please correct me if I’m wrong since I don’t live in Beersheva, that rather than create yet another out of town shopping area, this money might be best served by actually turning the still run down but potentially interesting center into a place where people might actually like to just hang out.

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