Outlets join forces, analyst not surprised

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CHARLOTTE – Simon Property Group and Tanger Factory Outlet Centers announced Wednesday that they will combine their plans for outlet shopping centers in Charlotte, ending speculation about an outlet battle in the Queen City.

Last month, Tanger announced plans to open an outlet in southwest Charlotte, and Simon said it was opening an outlet in the town of Stallings, just outside Charlotte.

Andy Misiaveg, who predicted from the start that only one outlet center would survive, said he isn’t at all shocked Simon and Tanger decided to work together, only surprised that it took so long for them to buddy up.

“I’m not surprised at all,” Misiaveg, a partner in the Charlotte office of the Atlanta-based Shopping Center Group, said Thursday. “There were both worried about the other getting the deal (and opening an outlet).

“I would have thought Simon would have joined forces with them on this site previously and not ever engaged on the Stallings site. They have a history of doing some deals with Tanger. I was really surprised they didn’t have the conversation earlier, to tell you the truth.”

The new joint outlet will be called Charlotte Premium Outlets, which was the original name for the Simon center, the two companies announced in a press release Wednesday evening. Charlotte Premium Outlets will be built on the site previously set aside for the proposed Tanger Outlets Charlotte, at the intersection of Interstate 485 and Steele Creek Road in southwest Charlotte.

The outlet will have 350,000 square feet of retail space, with an option of adding 50,000 square feet in the future, according to the press release. Calls to the Greensboro-based Tanger and the Indianapolis-based Simon were not returned for this story.

Tanger will develop the site and supervise the construction project, while Simon will take care of property management and marketing. Both companies will be responsible for leasing.

Misiaveg said the companies will divvy up the profits of the outlet center evenly, a win-win situation for both.

“It’s a fair-share propostion,” he said. “Tanger is the well-known local name because they’re headquartered in Greensboro and have done a lot in the Carolinas. But Simon has really deep pockets, and their Premium Outlets brand is probably the best outlet brand out there in the market right now.

“They are splitting profits, but 50 percent of profit is better than no profit.”

The loser in the new plan is the town of Stallings.

No officials from Stallings returned calls for this story. But in previous interviews, Town Manager Brian Matthews said the Simon outlet in his town would have been a huge project. The town has been gunning for a big retail project for more than a decade, previously losing out to the town of Mint Hill on a shopping mall that remains to be built.

Matthews said that the property taxes and sales taxes generated from the outlet would have accounted for at least $150,000 annually.

In the end, Misiaveg said, it came down to location.

“Ultimately, (Stallings is) just too close to Concord Mills, and the density of people over there, once you get west of (N.C. Highway) 74, the population density really falls off,” Misiaveg said. “I think that the Tanger site was better positioned in the long run to take advantage of the population growth over in that area and get further away from Concord Mills.”