25-store expansion planned for downtown ( PREMIUM Outlet ) mall
25-store expansion planned for downtown outlet mall
The cab
line on a recent afternoon at the Las Vegas Premium Outlets downtown
snaked but moved quickly as tourists carrying bags of merchandise piled into
cars. Hundreds of shoppers roamed the open-air center, shuttling from one store
to the next, looking for bargains.
The popularity of the discount mall, and its sister
property a few miles south of the Strip, has skyrocketed in recent years. Cab
driver Michelle Garcia said she shuttles more people there now than in 2005
when the economy was roaring.
“People are shopping more than they’re gambling,” Garcia
said from her car while waiting for passengers.
Mall owners are looking to capitalize on that popularity
by expanding the downtown outlet for a second time.
Simon Property Group plans
to add about 25 stores, comprising at least 150,000 square feet, to the
150-store mall. It also plans to add four levels to one of the parking garages,
increasing parking by as many as 685 spaces.
Indianapolis-based Simon expects to finish the project in
2015, said Alexandra Goranson, marketing director for Premium Outlets. She
declined to provide construction costs and did not say when work would begin.
On South Grand Central Parkway near the Spaghetti Bowl,
the mall, formally known as Las Vegas Premium Outlets-North, is fully leased
and typically packed with tourists. It underwent its first expansion in 2008,
about five years after opening.
One new tenant planning to move
into the new expanded space is Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th, which
is no stranger to the local discount shopping scene. The New York-based
retailer has an Off 5th store at Las Vegas Premium Outlets-South on
Las Vegas Boulevard South at East Warm Springs Road. That mall also is fully
leased.
Saks’ market research shows that the valley’s customer
base and tourist traffic are strong enough to sustain two Off 5th stores, vice
president of marketing Amber Cacali said. She said the downtown mall is one of
the country’s best performing outlet centers.
At Wilsons Leather, sales are up 30 percent
year-over-year, store manager Bree Mitchell said. Three-quarters of customers
are tourists, many of whom live in cold climates and flock to Wilsons for
low-priced jackets.
In the next couple of weeks, it’s going to be slammed all
the time,” Mitchell said.
Tanja Rajic, a graphic designer from Germany, was one of
the foreign tourists buying clothes at the mall earlier this month. She said
she learned about the outlet from a travel guide and while surfing the Internet
in Germany.
Rajic came to Las Vegas to shop and sightsee, not to
gamble, she said. She wants to visit again.
“It’s beautiful,” she said.
Simon, which owns or partially owns 332 retail
properties, describes itself as the world's largest real estate company.
Nevertheless, when it bought land for the mall expansion, it showed that even
the largest of corporations can miscalculate deals.
Las Vegas developers Mark and Jeff Fine sold the
expansion site to Simon for $16 million in May — almost a decade after they
bought it from Simon and its development partner Chelsea Property Group for
$4.9 million.
The Fines had planned to build 100,000 square feet of
retail, restaurant and office space on the lot, but the project never
materialized. So they sold the land back to its previous owner for a tidy
profit.
