Seeking to reshape mall-going experience, new amusement park opens in Herzliya's Seven Stars Mall

The Gravity Park amusement park, a 2,000-square-meter complex featuring rides, games, and other attractions, opened last month at the Seven Stars Mall in Herzliya as part of an effort to transform the Israeli mall-going experience from one centered primarily on shopping to one increasingly built around leisure, dining, and entertainment.

The new complex features a suspended 200-meter electric go-kart track that runs as high as 12 meters above the main floor, a 16-meter-tall drop tower, and a roller coaster.

It also has a multisensory VR experience, an arcade with over 120 games, climbing walls, and a 400-square-meter trampoline area.

According to the mall, the park cost around NIS 50 million and took around four years of planning and construction to complete. 

The purpose of this project, Seven Stars Mall CEO Yaniv Fainshnider told The Jerusalem Post during a visit to the complex earlier this month, was to reshape the mall-going experience to meet the shifting landscape of consumer behavior.

Seven Stars Mall CEO: Consumers looking for entertainment

“Today, the consumer doesn’t just think about where to buy his shirt. He’s looking for a reason to come and where to spend his time, not just to buy a shirt, but for entertainment,” Fainshnider said.

In the past, he explained, consumers generally went to a mall because they needed to buy something. Increasingly, however, shopping is becoming one part of a broader outing built around dining, leisure and entertainment.

“The consumer comes here; he can go to a restaurant or a cafe, and on the way buy what he’s missing at home,” Fainshnider said. “That’s why we need to provide as many experiences and as much entertainment as possible.”

According to Fainshnider, Gravity Park is part of that strategy alongside other efforts, including the addition of more dining and leisure offerings.

“I think today the mall needs to reinvent itself,” Fainshnider said.