Cover story
Fixing Challenged Centers
For years many retailers have been grumbling that outlet-center developers needed to take action to improve — or close — their worst underperforming centers. Bringing the issue to the forefront is the Wall Street tumble of Prime Retail in January. This month Value Retail News looks at the problem that could be the challenge of the new decade for the nation’s outlet-center developers.	Prime Outlets at Florida City

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Features
Brand Penetration A wide margin of the best-known apparel brands is found in outlet centers, a Value Retail News study shows.
Tanger Cheers Super Bowl Outlet center developer Tanger Factory Outlet Centers distributes 200,000 scratch-off sweepstakes tickets tied to a Super Bowl promotion.

Moving Furnishings into Outlets A new furnishings-oriented complex at Prime Outlets of San Marcos, Texas, could bring several new players into the outlet business, signaling fresh interest in a category the outlet-development business has largely overlooked. Brass World Controls Growth Brass World will open a new store in San Marcos, Texas, but plans to close the poorest performing of its other 12 outlet units. Owner Larry Montgomery says he has little interest in expanding beyond his current dozen-store mark.

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Largest outlet markets Twenty developers control the top 25 outlet-project markets, and six developers are in more than one major market, a new study by Value Retail News finds. And two megamalls, previously considered off-price projects because less than half of their tenants operated outlet stores, join the list after they increase the percentage of outlet-store tenants. Center expansions A survey by Value Retail News details outlet-center expansions planned by developers through the year 2000. Center Zaps Some outlet centers closed last year, but many continued on as non-outlet retail. A look at some of the centers no longer considered outlet projects and why they were recategorized. Retail Zaps Outlet retailers weren’t spared in 1999 as stores of all kinds stumbled. A look at some of the retailers who exited the outlet industry last year, including some whose parent companies went bankrupt.

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Body Scanning for Fit Konover’s Truefinds.com gets exclusive rights to license new Truefit technology, and it plans to make the body-measuring device available throughout the retail industry. Web Advice Companies choosing to use a Web page to promote their business can better ensure success by heeding a dozen suggestions.
Danish Company Eyes E-tail Outlets Three Denmark-based partners form a company that plans to create a Web-based outlet mall, focusing initially on European and Asian brands.

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Riding the Brands A London-based developer, Value Retail, is propelled toward continental Europe by upscale brands and the consumers who love them. Right: Value Retail PLC's La Roca Designer Outlet Village, Barcelona, Spain

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Same Song, Different Verse
Mills Corp.’s latest incarnation, Opry Mills, offers a bit of a twist compared to the developer’s other enclosed shopping/entertainment megamalls. Steeled for Value A historic Pittsburgh steel mill site (right) now offers value retailers 750,000 sf in a rich, under-retailed urban market.
Rack Room Redesigns, Expands Rack Room Shoes, which has a colorful new décor for its new MetroMart stores, plans 80 new units by end of 2001.

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And each month...
• Off-Price & Outlet Briefs:
  
  Developers, Projects, Retailers and People in the news
• Outlet Perspectives:
  Award-winning feature where industry professionals comment on industry issues
• Monthly Same-Store Outlet Chain Sales Index
• ICSC Events Calendar

2000 Directories Are Here!

Outlet Retail, Off-Price Retail and Outlet Project Directories... Order your copies now! Call Directory Orders at 727-781-7557 or click here to order on-line (this will open a new browser window)

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