According to reports dating from 2007, a large business centre, under the name of G-mall, spreading over 90,000 square meters at the site of former factory Alumina, was to be opened.
The Israeli company Gazit Globe, through its subsidiary established in Macedonia, G- Macedonia, on June 30, 2008, became the legal owner of the Alumina factory and the land where it is located. This opened the way for the development of the site that had not been functioning during the last eight years, as it was reported by media in 2008.
"Gazit Globe" was the only bidder in the fifth attempt to sell the facility. The company gave a bid 20 percent higher than the starting price, thus providing more recovery to the creditors of Alumina. According to media reports, the Israeli company bought the former Alumina factory for 22 million euros.
The Minister at the time, Gligor Tashkovic, who brought in the Israeli investor, explained that during the purchase, Gazit Globe was faced with serious challenges arising from the bankruptcy of Alumina; the difficulties were overcome in the second half of the year.
Gazit Globe according to media, was planning to invest 100 million euros in a residential and commercial centre, which would contain a luxury hotel and office buildings. Tashkovic, in 2008, reported that 700 workers will receive contributions for pensions, salaries and health insurance, for which 4.14 million euros will be paid.
The company was planning to invest in two other projects in Macedonia, which were estimated at 200 million euros.
The grandiose announcements for the gigantic shopping centre at the site of the former factory and the other new projects subsided some time in 2011, when the mayor of Karposh at the time, Stevce Jakimovski, accused the Government of choosing the wrong investors.
"Obviously, the Israeli investor has no money, and my guess is that they plan to resell the land. I believe that it may the wisest to seize the land from them and re-purpose it," stated Jakimovski in an interview for Utrinski Vesnik.
The Macedonian branch of Gazit Globe is still present. The company had only one employee in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
The non-current assets of the company amount to 32.3 million euros. BIRN emailed questions to Gazit Globe and requested an explanation about what happened to the investment, however we did not get a reply.
The website of Gazit Globe explains that the group operates in more than 20 countries, owns and manages 429 properties with an area of 6.5 million square meters and has a gross annual income of approximately 1.7 billion dollars.