Tanger Outlets to Handle New Outlet Mall at Foxwoods

Tanger Factory Outlets, Inc. will build, manage and co-own a outlet mall to be built at Foxwoods Resort Casino, according to a report published Friday by The Day.

Matt Armstrong, executive vice president, development for Greenwich-based Gordon Group Holdings, a partner in the the project, says the story was premature and more information will be available in July.

“We are still in pre-construction,” Armstrong said in an email.

The project, originally announced in February by Foxwoods president and chief executive Scott Butera and developer Sheldon Gordon, was described at the time as an 85-store outlet mall with a focus on luxury brands called The Premier Outlet Shoppes at Foxwoods. It will now be called the Tanger Outlets at Foxwoods, The Day reports. No start date or mall occupants have been announced and Foxwoods declined comment Friday on the report.

Gordon has built retail centers at other casino resorts including Mohegan Sun and the Forum Shops at Caesars in Las Vegas, as well as large outlet malls.

Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, Inc. operates 39 outlet centers across the country, including the Tanger Outlet Center in Westbrook. The Westbrook Center has more than 60 stores, including Justice, Eddie Bauer, J. Crew, Old Navy and the state’s first Williams Sonoma outlet, which opened in May. (Another nearby outlet center, Clinton Crossing Premium Outlets, is within 35 miles of the Foxwoods project.)

Foxwoods currently has about 28, mostly high-end stores. The new plan follows the trend of adding outlet stores to casinos — a retail mix that has been a successful formula in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and other parts of the country.

Last July, Value Retail News reported on four outlet projects planned for casino venues in North America, including The Shoppes at Sands, which opened earlier this year near the Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem, Pa.

Research by Cordish Co., developer of the Atlantic City Outlets, has shown that casino-goers and outlet shoppers share a similar profile: that of a 50-plus-year-old woman of middle to upper income.

Foxwoods’ outlet mall is to be built between the Grand Pequot Tower and the MGM Grand. Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Chairman Rodney Butler said in February that the Foxwoods outlet mall is designed to connect the original casino resort with the MGM Grand, which are now linked by a skywalk, into a “seamless experience.”