Tanger Outlet to compete with Grove City mall
Outlet shopping always has been an occasional treat for Betty Clutter.
"Whenever I'm on vacation I go to all the outlets wherever we are -- Lancaster or Florida or Myrtle Beach," -- the Washington. resident said. Now, with a major factory store center about to open a few miles from home, "I definitely will go there."
When it debuts Aug. 29, the Tanger Outlet Center near Washington will be the closest a factory outlet complex ever has come to the Pittsburgh area. Its location on a hillside overlooking The Meadows Racetrack and Casino is a 25-mile drive southwest from Downtown, compared with 55 miles north to the popular, and much bigger, Prime Outlets at Grove City.
The two centers will battle for customers starting with this year's back-to-school and holiday shopping seasons, though one retail expert said Tanger's newness and its proximity to the city, the flourishing Meadows slots parlor and the junction of Interstates 70 and 79 give it an edge.
"It will be the premium outlet center in the eastern Great Lakes and central mid-Atlantic states region," said well-known retail analyst Burt P. Flickinger III of the consulting firm Strategic Resource Group in New York.
Tanger "will pull people from Youngstown, given the slower pace of retail development in the Cleveland-Akron-Canton area, and it will pull people from other parts of Ohio and the southern tier of New York state," he predicted.
The Grove City center's senior general manager concedes there'll be some impact on his complex of 140 stores, food court and other restaurants.
"We'll see a little decline within the first couple weeks of our Allegheny County traffic," Carmen DeRose said.
But the Grove City center is among the 20 biggest outlet complexes nationwide, he said, and features unique names, such as Juicy Couture fashions and Oakley Vault sunglasses, both recent additions, and Charlotte Russe juniors' and girls' clothing, coming Sept. 1. Celebrity stylist Mark-Alan Harmon stars in a new marketing campaign stressing the center's high-fashion offerings.
The Tanger center off Racetrack Road in South Strabane, Washington County, will open at 9 a.m. Aug. 29. with at least 74 stores and food court restaurants, leaving just three or four vacant storefronts. A parade at around 10:20 a.m. will feature Trinity High School's band and former Steeler Jerome Bettis will host the grand opening ceremonies.
Tanger so far is set to feature 54 brands that also have stores at Prime Outlets in Grove City. Among the duplicates: Coach, Jones New York, Pfaltzgraff and Tommy Hilfiger.
Greensboro, N.C.-based Tanger Outlet Centers Inc. is the nation's second largest owner of outlet malls with 31 centers in 22 states, including one in Lancaster. Prime Retail Inc. of Baltimore is third, with 21 centers.
Factory outlet centers went through a building boom in the late 1980s and early '90s. And while the total has declined to 217 centers from more than 300 a decade ago, modern complexes tend to be larger, said Linda Humphers, editor-in-chief of Value Retail News, which tracks the outlet industry.
Sales at the centers range from $17 billion to $20 billion a year, around 2 percent of total retail revenues nationwide.
Retailers say the average discount at their outlet stores is 37 percent -- for merchandise that may have been overstocked or left from a previous season, though many now produce special items for outlets. "There are not many 'seconds' anymore," Humphers said.
Dire economic reports, including this summer's forecasts for weak back-to-school sales, usually don't faze outlet center operators.
The centers "tend to run counter-cyclical to economic downturns," doing well in tough times, she said. And while shoppers consider gas prices, many figure the trip will be fun and their savings on name-brand items will make up for the costs.
DeRose said fewer bargain-hunters have been coming to the Grove City complex lately, but they are spending more per visit.
Flickinger said the Tanger center could send ripples through retail centers across the Pittsburgh region, cutting sales at department stores like Macy's and Bon-Ton as well as at discounters like Kmart and Target.
And shoppers may find the same items at some outlet stores, and at malls a few miles away. Retailers' exclusive rights to a brand's latest styles within a territory "will be strictly enforced for the first 50 to 100 days, when the vice presidents and district managers are checking the outlet mall," he said, but this will taper off.
"With the department store sales sagging significantly, the luxury goods brands' suppliers have to move their merchandise," Flickinger said.
Carole DeAngelo, general manager at the Washington Crown Center mall, seven miles from the Tanger center, views the outlets as a new asset that could boost commerce across the city.
Shoppers from West Virginia, Ohio and other nearby states that levy sales taxes on clothing purchases, unlike Pennsylvania, will head to the Tanger center, she said, and once there, "We're hoping that they visit us, too."
The $75 million Tanger complex could become the centerpiece among several developments envisioned for vacant land south of Racetrack Road.
A Bass Pro Shop sporting goods store still is in the works, said Jeff Kotula, executive director of the Washington County Chamber of Commerce, and hotel chains and other businesses are interested, though none have committed.
"I assume they're waiting for Tanger to open," he said.
Contractors at the outlet complex were putting finishing touches on the buildings last week, and pouring concrete walkways.
Eight buildings with 370,000 square feet of retail space have been built, and the center could be expanded later by 50,000 to 60,000 square feet, said Frank N. Salucci, the center's general manager and a former manager at the Galleria in Mt. Lebanon and Morgantown Mall in West Virginia.
The structures in muted blue, green, red and other colors sit along two main covered walkways. Bronze horses at the entrance and in a courtyard will tie in with the local harness racing theme and Tanger, in fact, is working on promotions that will entice casino and track visitors across the street for some shopping.
Nine outparcels for banks, restaurants and other businesses are off Tanger Drive, which eventually will connect to Bass Pro and another I-79 interchange.
More construction is under way on Racetrack Road, to widen it from four to six lanes with turning lanes for The Meadows and Tanger. Other changes are planned at the I-79 Racetrack Road exit, "so that it won't back up like in the past."
That brings to mind one more similarity with Prime Outlets, which benefited from lane improvements at I-79's Grove City interchange last year.
Tanger, like Prime, kicks off the holiday season well before sunrise.
"We will be open at midnight on Thanksgiving night," Salucci said.
