Ma’gal – Business Improvement District (BID)

The Challenge

Commercial streets and city center vacancies have increased with the growth of e-commerce and mall culture. In addition, infrastructure barriers following the light rail project pose a challenging period for commerce in Tel Aviv. At the same time, the desire of the city’s residents and visitors to experience bustling and active streets remains strong. As such, the challenge is in finding ways to return city centers and commercial streets to once again thrive as active spaces that the general public can enjoy visiting and, of course, remain profitable for businesses operating in them. For starters, the municipality wanted to focus on three different areas of the city: Givon Square, Sheinkin Street, and Gan HaChashmal.

Our Role

An investigation of the three areas we dealt with revealed similarities that led us to conclude that a profound change in the nature of the spaces was needed. Although the needs and desires of the municipality, the businesses in those spaces, and the visitors to the area are essentially similar, it was necessary to bring all parties together in order to move towards common goals. Thus, for the first time in the city’s history, we led this project together with the Business Improvement District (BID) Administration in the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality )or in its “Tel Aviv name” – Ma’gal (translated to “Circle”(. The model enables the incorporation of local businesses in a common geographical space, in order to promote their economic activity. The purpose of the association is to create a vibrant, active, and profitable business space in close and productive cooperation between businesses and the local authority. The main tool for carrying out the process is establishing a strong business association that develops entrepreneurship, enables businesses to benefit from support and cooperation, encourages economic activity in the region, and empowers the marketing and procurement power as one unified group. This is based on the perception that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

In local terms, the BID model is exciting news for stores and business owners in the urban space who do not belong to commercial complexes or malls. The associations have been managed independently over the past few years, in close cooperation with the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality, and maintain stability and business growth while improving the image of the business-geographic space in which they operate.