Tanger has 34 outlet centers in 22 states. Most Tanger developments are in areas that require shoppers to travel long distances, and Tanger officials said the move to National Harbor will mark the first time its stores have been placed close to a metropolitan center.
“National Harbor not only has high visibility and easy access to major highways, it is also minutes away from three international airports,” Tanger said.
Proposed outlet mall
The development will be built off the main waterfront property on Salubria, a historic Oxon Hill plantation where a 14-year-old slave allegedly poisoned her slavemaster’s three children. Two preservationist groups had called for the property to be maintained but in recent days drew up a compromise with the Peterson Cos. They agreed to work to provide “an appropriate interpretation of the historical significance of the property somewhere on the site,” said Andre Gingles, a lawyer for the company.
The new stores will open in one of the wealthiest majority-black jurisdictions in the country, but it is also one where residents say they have been repeatedly snubbed by the business community. Residents have been so underserved they rejoiced 15 years ago over the opening of an Applebee’s. And when Wegmans opened last year, there was essentially a countywide celebration.
Peterson said the new center will help to fill a gaping shopping void, not just in the county but across many parts of the region.
“We’ll draw from Washington because they don’t have it,” he said. “We’ll draw from this part of Virginia because they don’t have it. But more importantly, we will provide this for the south county of Prince George’s County. It becomes a bonanza in shopping habits for Prince George’s County.”
The outlets were one piece of Peterson’s original plan for a “family-friendly” environment at National Harbor. In 2009, Walt Disney Co. bought a 15-acre parcel at the site, where it plans to build a 500-room hotel resort, and the National Children’s Museum is expected to relocate to National Harbor.
Officials say Tanger outlets draw nearly 9 million shoppers each year. The stores bring in from $10 million to $12 million in sales and property taxes annually, but officials expect National Harbor to surpass those figures because of its location and the potential to draw tourists and customers from throughout the region. Taylor Chess, senior vice president of retail at the Peterson Cos., said the center will create 400 temporary construction jobs and 800 full- and part-time positions at the center.
Chess said the Peterson Cos. have been studying the outlet sector for the past 18 months. He said malls are becoming a thing of the past as outlets have the ability to sell some of the same name brands at lower prices. The “new generation” shopper is more discriminating, willing to buy her St. John suit from an outlet instead of Neiman Marcus, he said. Chess said the Peterson Cos. was thrilled to sign with Tanger.
“They started the outlet industry. They have been on the forefront of innovative design of outlet shopping,” Chess said.
Ellen Davis, a spokeswoman for the National Retail Federation, a trade group, said outlet sales have continued to increase in recent years.
But the construction of a new outlet center will break a trend in the building industry. Jesse Tron, a spokesman for the International Council of Shopping Centers, said there are few shopping centers being built.
“The focus is on redevelopment, not new development,” he said.
Tron said the industry has moved away from the traditional enclosed mall. The last enclosed shopping mall in the United States was built in 2006, he said.
The Peterson Cos. and Tanger will jointly provide site development and construction supervision services to the venture; Tanger will manage, market and provide leasing services.
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