BIG Or Akiva

BIG Or Akiva opened in 2025 as part of BIG Shopping Centers’ coordinated five-month, seven-project portfolio expansion that also delivered new openings or major expansions at Beersheva, Carmi Gat, Ashdod, Migdal Ha’Emek, Gedera, and the flagship BIG Fashion Glilot. The Or Akiva property offers approximately 24,000 square meters of GLA in the BIG open-air strip mall format, anchoring the northern coastal catchment between Hadera and Caesarea.

Or Akiva itself is a small city of approximately 20,000 residents that has historically been served by the smaller Hadera retail clusters and the larger Cinema City Hadera. The BIG opening fills a gap in regional retail capacity for the northern coastal communities including Or Akiva, Caesarea, the surrounding moshavim, and parts of Binyamina-Givat Ada and Pardes Hanna-Karkur.

The format runs the standard BIG open-air strip-mall template, with anchor tenants including supermarket, home goods, value fashion chains, electronics, sport, beauty, casual dining, and quick-service restaurants. The Saturday opening hours, free parking, and direct access from Highway 4 and Highway 65 support the regional catchment.

BIG CEO Hay Galis described the 2025 expansion wave as a generational refresh of the Israeli mall stock, replacing properties that have run for 20 to 30 years with newer formats sized for the contemporary tenant mix and customer expectations. BIG Or Akiva fits that narrative as a category-defining anchor for a catchment that previously lacked a dedicated regional retail destination.

For brand expansion teams testing the northern coastal catchment between Hadera and Caesarea, BIG Or Akiva offers the obvious anchor location and the most recently built infrastructure in the region. The property pairs naturally with BIG Ir Yamim or Ofer Renanim Mall as part of a Sharon coastal rollout.