JACKY BEN ZAKEN: WE WANT TO CONVERT ARENA TO THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MALL Businessman Jacky Ben Zaken was quoted by The Marker website after he acquired the Arena shopping mall, together with Avraham Nanikashvili .and Haim Revivo Published on 23/02/2007 in The Marker
Jacky Ben Zaken
The owners of all shopping malls in competition with Arena should start working hard.“ This is the only place with a mall on the beach and setting it up as an expensive mall is a mistake” Jacky Ben Zaken, the businessman from Ashdod and partner in Manofim Finance – the company that signed the agreement two weeks ago with owner Moti .Zisser for acquiring Arena mall, said this week Jacky Ben Zaken plans to make this shopping mall the most successful, not only in the Sharon area but in all of Israel. He intends to change the image of Arena as an exclusive .elitist mall, which, in his opinion, was a mistake Architects are not our target customers”, told Jacky Ben Zaken in response to the“ criticism in regard to the kitschy design of the mall he purchased. “What is important to me is the opinion of the everyday customer and the people in general, not only those in the Herzliya Pituach area. It should be the shopping mall of the people of Israel. With all due respect to the Seven Stars (Shivat Hakochavim) mall, which is said to be more .”successful, they pose no competition to us Jacky Ben Zaken, together with former soccer player Haim Revivo, holds the minority of shares in Mapal, which is controlled by, Avraham Nanikashvili (47), a tycoon from Ashdod holding 64% of company shares. Accordingly to business magazine Maariv, Nanikashvili ranked 16th on the list of the 100 wealthiest Israelis, with his wealth estimated at 3.6 billion NIS, and placed well above Moti Zisser ranks in the 60th place on the same list, with his wealth estimated at 1.3 billionNIS. Despite this, the deal was .signed in the offices of Zisser on Weizman St. in Tel Aviv where all were present