Mamilla Mall

Mamilla Mall
Mamilla Mall at night, with Old City Walls in background
Alternative names	Alrov Mamilla Avenue
General information
Status	Complete
Location	Jerusalem
Country	Israel
Construction started	1997
Completed	2008
Opened	2007–2008
Cost	$150 million
Owner	Alrov Properties and Lodgings Ltd.
Dimensions
Other dimensions	2,000-foot (610 m) pedestrian promenade
Design and construction
Architect	Moshe Safdie
Other information
Number of stores	140
Parking	1600 spaces
Website
http://www.alrovmamilla.com/en

Mamilla Mall, also known as Alrov Mamilla Avenue, is an upscale shopping street and the only open-air mall in Jerusalem, Israel. Located northwest of Jaffa Gate, the mall consists of a 2,000-foot (610 m) pedestrian promenade called Alrov Mamilla Avenue lined by 140 stores, restaurants, and cafes, and office space on upper floors. The mall sits atop a multi-story parking garage for 1,600 cars and buses, and a bus terminal. Designed by Moshe Safdie and developed by Alrov Properties and Lodgings Ltd. of Tel Aviv, the mall incorporates the facades of 19th-century buildings from the original Mamilla Street, as well as the original structures of the Convent of St. Vincent de Paul, the Stern House, and the Clark House.

The mall is part of the Alrov Mamilla Quarter, a $400 millionmixed-use development that also includes the 28-acre (11 ha) David's Village luxury condominium project, the David Citadel Hotel, the Alrov Mamilla Hotel, and the Karta parking lot. While the overall project was approved by the municipality in the early 1970s, and most of the condominiums and the David Citadel Hotel were completed in the 1990s, construction of the mall was delayed time and again – first due to opposition by preservationist, environmentalist, and religious groups, and then due to bureaucratic disputes, litigation, and arbitration. The mall was finally completed and opened in stages from 2007 to 2008, thirty-seven years after its initial proposal.

Mamilla Mall runs perpendicular to the Old City Walls between Jaffa Road and Yitzhak Kariv Street. It opens onto the intersection of King Solomon, King David, and Agron Streets at its northern end, and Jaffa Gate at its southern end.

The original Mamilla Street extended from the Mamilla Pool to Jaffa Gate. Along this street, wealthy Arabs constructed homes, offices and stores in the 1800s. Toward the end of the 19th century, and especially during the British Mandate era, the street became a fashionable commercial district. Both Arab and Jewish businessmen operated high-end shops for furniture, textiles, housewares, art, photography, and automobile showrooms.

In response to the announcement of the United Nations Partition Plan, Arab mobs stormed Mamilla Street on December 2, 1947, ransacking and setting fire to 40 Jewish-owned stores. Jewish merchants fled the area, which then came under heavy bombardment during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. With the cessation of hostilities, the area became a no man's land dividing the Jordanian-occupied Old City from Jewish West Jerusalem, until a truce was signed in 1952. In the 1950s, poor Sephardic immigrant families and tradesmen took up occupancy in the derelict buildings, and workshops and auto-repair garages replaced the former stores.