The new DCT Mall is much more than just a mirage in the desert

Even for a cynical reporter his words were not empty. In the first few minutes of arriving at the mall for the grand opening ceremony, I saw a line of cabaret girls dancing in front of a giant fountain, a band of oriental drummers, street performers dressed in flamboyant costumes, and musical ensembles. almost every corner. And that was before I got to the indoor piazza and food court, designed to be a replica of the famous Venetian Resort in Las Vegas, complete with an artificial indoor sky. The night will finally conclude with a laser light show and a rock concert.

Whether or not DCT is like a vacation abroad, it’s really nothing we’ve ever seen here.

Spread across 150,000 square metres, and with an investment of some NIS 750 million, DCity intends to transform the shopping experience and elevate the entire Ma’aleh Adumim area in the process. The mall includes about 200 storefronts, as well as a food court with top restaurants and a luxury hotel. A children’s amusement park with approximately 40 rides will open in the coming months and additional complexes will offer more entertainment options in the future.

Rewatch said there will be live performances and events almost every day of the year, giving people no shortage of reasons to come and visit. He said that most malls are outside, which helps to overcome many of the challenges of opening up during the pandemic.

Celebrities kicked off the three-day gala this week, including Guy Zoo-Artz and Yael Bar-Zohar, and big-name acts, including Moshe Peretz and Ethnics, were the main attraction among street performers and school dance troupes. appeared as.

DCity has lured most of Israel’s top domestic companies and many foreign brands to set up shop here, including many that previously did not have storefronts anywhere in the country. The goal is to become a mecca for the entire home design industry across the country, with everything for design or renovation in one place.

This would allow it to fill a void left by the fall of Talpiat, the neighborhood that has until now been the home center of Jerusalem.

“A lot of stores have already moved out of Talpiot, and it basically doesn’t exist from a home shopping standpoint,” said Israel Gross, who visited the mall with her child from Givat Zeev. “It was built 50 or 60 years ago, while it’s a new, modern space that’s designed to be how people like to shop today.”

Many mall businesses see things the same way.

“Jerusalem shoppers are beginning to become accustomed to the shopping habits of the world’s most sophisticated cities, and they will never be satisfied with the Talpiot industrial area,” said Golan Simani, manager of the DCT branch of iDesign, an upscale furniture store. “We are already seeing that our target market in Jerusalem is already expanding from here, so we closed our Talpiot branch to open here. We expect Talpiot to make many changes in the coming times. Will pass through, and it won’t be the city’s destination for home design very soon.

“It’s a place with everything you need in one place, with beautiful amenities and an abundance of parking,” said Yitzhak, manager of the In-Out Door store. “It’s not unrealistic to expect that it will take a substantial portion of the buying volume from Talpiot.”

Rewatch said DCCity’s main focus is on home design, with the interior of the mall dedicated to restaurants and “traditional” mall stores, and a strip on the second floor dedicated to clothing stores, opening in the coming weeks. .

“If we were going to offer a bunch of clothing stores, you could go to Malha’s or any other mall,” Revach said. “What we’re doing is something special.”

DCITY’s expectations are as big as its vision. Rewatch said he expects 10 million visitors each year, including three million tourists. (Quick Math: This comes to about 27,000 visitors per day, which corresponds to some of the largest malls in Israel. This is also roughly the number of visitors to the Western Wall each year.)

“Today, there are no foreign tourists here, but we expect Israelis on holiday to stop on their drives towards the Dead Sea or Eilat. Currently, the only stops along the roads to the Negev are gas stations, and they certainly do. Would choose to come here for your rest.

The DCITY campus is spread over 150,000 square metres, with an investment of some NIS 750 million. (Credit: Mark Israel Salem/Jerusalem Post)

Revach said Jerusalem, Israel’s largest city, is not a great mall like the malls located in the center of the country, and people will come to DCT for entertainment and shopping. About 1.5 million people live within a 35-minute drive from the mall, and once people in Tel Aviv become familiar with it, they too will be happy to drive more than an hour to get there, she said.

For those in Jerusalem who need more enticing, buses will run every 20 minutes from the International Convention Center throughout the year.

Rewatch said that the success of the DCT campus will transform the entire Maleh Adumim area. “Till now, people didn’t come to this area because there wasn’t much here,” she said. “Once they see everything that we’re building, there will be a lot of people and commerce coming here.”

The city of Maleh Adumim, with a population of around 40,000, has jumped at the opportunity to begin re-establishing itself as a growing economic hub.

City Mayor Benny Kashariel said, “We are promoting unprecedented projects here to establish Maleh Adumim as an independent, economically viable city with a high quality of life and places of employment and business. ” “In addition to a source of entertainment, shopping and leisure, the campus will provide hundreds of jobs for residents of the city and surrounding area.”

The municipality recently renamed its Mishor Adumim Industrial Area, where the DCT is located, as Park Israel. A city official said that if the old name evokes images of dusty factory outlets, the rebranding “reflects the new reality of the area as a trendy destination for shopping and leisure.”

Buses around Jerusalem have billboards of Kashriel inviting people to come.

REVACH stressed that intensive marketing campaigns were underway for both Jewish and Arab populations. However, this week the people in hand noticed that there were hardly any Arabs, Israelis or Palestinians in the large crowd.

Without Israeli citizenship or a Jerusalem identity card, Palestinians can enter the industrial area only if they have a work permit.

“I’ve certainly noticed that there haven’t been several billion shoppers in the past few days,” said one store owner. “The attractions of the festival may not have spoken to the Arab community, but I believe they will.”

Rewatch said politics was not a factor that the company took into account when deciding to open a mall in the desert in the West Bank. “We have no ideological agenda, and we have not been given any government grants. We were able to buy the land very cheaply, and we are using the money that we have saved to provide a great service.”

The mall is owned by Kass Investment Group, led by the religiously observant and child-faced Enoch Kass, who seems too small to run a business empire.

The group has several boutique mall complexes in Israel and Georgia, but DCT is its largest project.

Kass was on hand for the opening, schlepping with guests and constantly on the phone with various managers. He declined to be interviewed for this article, but he was confident that the mall would prove successful “without a doubt”.

The confidence that Cass and Rewatch have reposed in DCCity is a bit disturbing. There are very serious questions about whether a campus in the desert above the Green Line will be able to attract so many visitors, especially at a time when the pandemic is keeping any future visibility to a minimum.

Less than two kilometers from the building, which rises against the barren landscape, is the Ramshakal Khan al-Ahmar Bedouin camp, which has been in discussion for years in efforts to relocate residents of Israel. The combination of the opulent luxury of Dcity and the filth of the tent can prove to be very troubling for some Israelis.

Kass, his investors and the shop owner and restaurant owner most people aren’t trusting, or too enchanted by the magical Emerald City rising out of the desert.

The first impression that comes from visitors is glowing.

“I’m blown away. It’s the most amazing place ever, and I can’t believe we’re outside Jerusalem,” said Minky, from Jerusalem’s Romema neighborhood.

She laughed. “I definitely plan on coming back with a lot of money.”