Israel’s largest and fanciest designer mall, with a piazza built as a replica of the famous Venetian Resort in Las Vegas, opened this week outside Ma’aleh Adumim near Jerusalem.
The new DCity Mall includes some 200 storefronts, restaurants, a luxury hotel, an artificial indoor sky, and more spread over 150,000 square meters. More than a billion shekels have been invested in the mall, which was designed by celebrity architect Gadi Halperin. The mall’s food court was recently used as the set for the video for Israel’s Eurovision Song Contest entry, Eden Alene’s “Set Me Free.”
DCity is hosting a grand opening festival on August 9-11 from 3:00 p.m., with an extensive lineup of performances scheduled throughout the day.
All the stores are for home products, although there is a hall dedicated to clothing stores that will be opened in a few weeks, said mall CEO Pnina Revach.
“People from the center of the country ask me why we are building such a mall near Jerusalem,” Revach said. “In the center, they have large malls where people can come and enjoy themselves, but Jerusalem doesn’t have anything on that level. There are 1.5 million people living within a 35-minute drive, but there isn’t a great mall here. People from Tel Aviv say they would never drive out to a mall near Jerusalem, but once they see this place, they will change their minds.”
DCity is owned by the Kass Investment Group, which specializes in setting up boutique complexes in Israel and Georgia. The company is headed by Hanoch Kass, an Orthodox Jew.
A covered amusement park called Magic Kass, with about 40 installations, will be opened in the coming weeks next to the mall, Revach added.
“The entire area of Mishor Adumim will be transformed by the mall,” Revach said. “This is not just another mall. We have all the big names, including many international brands that don’t have a storefront anywhere else in Israel. We home design stores that have already opened here and closed their branches in Talpiot, which is currently Jerusalem’s home design center. This will change everything for residents here.”
Revach insists that the decision to open over the Green Line was not political. “We don’t have any agenda, and we weren’t given any government grants. We bought the land very inexpensively, and we are using the money we saved to provide a great service.
The mall will cater to Jewish and Arab customers equally, Revach noted.
There will be a strong focus on fine restaurants and leisure activities, including live music and entertainment provided nearly every day, Revach added. As many as 20 million visitors a year have been projected.
The opening festival this week includes art performances, juggling shows, flash mob performances, musical ensembles, street theater, a fashion parade and more. Some 250 different artists will take part in the program, the organizers say.
A free bus line to and from Jerusalem runs from 9:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. and from 3 p.m. until 10 p.m. every 20 minutes, with stops at the International Convention Center, Ramot Junction and French Hill.
