BIG Beer Sheva

BIG Beer Sheva opened in August 1997 on Eliyahu Nawi Road in Beer Sheva as the first project of BIG Shopping Centers Ltd. The 31,000 square meter open-air retail park introduced the American power center concept to Israel, where Yehuda Naftali had returned from the United States in 1994 to launch the company. Total project value at opening reached approximately EUR 221 million.

The format spans seven separate buildings plus a small enclosed mini-mall on a 77 dunam site, with approximately 88 stores arranged around free parking for roughly 1,550 vehicles. This open-air, anchor-driven layout broke from the enclosed Israeli mall template that Azrieli had established with Ayalon Mall in 1985 and that Melisron had reinforced with Kiryon in 1983.

Tenant mix targets the value-driven family shopper. International and Israeli fashion and footwear chains operate alongside one of the largest supermarkets in the country, electrical appliance retailers, a drug store, cosmetics chains, housewares, restaurants, fast food, and cafés. BIG positions the format as offering substantially lower rents than enclosed malls, with a pass-through to consumer prices that anchors the value proposition.

The catchment pulls from Beer Sheva, Dimona, Arad, Yeruham, the Bedouin towns of Rahat and Tel Sheva, and the southern Negev kibbutzim. BIG Beer Sheva and Ofer Grand Mall Beer Sheva together cover the Negev retail market with complementary positioning, and the smaller Azrieli Negev Mall serves the third anchor location in the city.

For brand expansion teams, BIG Beer Sheva offers the cleanest test of value-tier consumer demand in southern Israel, with the lowest rents per square meter among the three Beer Sheva anchors and the longest operating history of the BIG format in the country.