The 25,000-square-foot store will join more than 100 others, including Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th, Brooks Brothers Factory Store, Coach, Tommy Hilfiger, Nike, Gap Outlet, and Banana Republic Factory Store, at the Paragon Outlets Grand Prairie. The 420,000-square-foot shopping center opens Aug. 17 at the northeast corner of Interstate 20 and Texas 360.
The Star-Telegram chewed over the project with Nicholas King, a principal in Paragon Outlets Partners, the Baltimore firm that's developing the center and owns other outlet centers in Livermore Valley, Calif., and Orlando, Fla.
How much of the space is leased right now?
In excess of 90 percent. We're putting the finishing touches on the tenant mix. We expect to open 100 percent occupied.
Any room in the development to grow beyond the 420,000 square feet?
We do have some additional land (the development has about 50 acres total), but we have no plans to expand the property at this time.
Who's the customer?
Our typical shopper is female, 35-55, typically with household incomes of $75,000, fashion-conscious, brand-aware. We target major metro areas. We thought the DFW market was under-retailed from an outlet perspective. We really like the demographics.
How far will this property draw from?
They can draw from up to 60 miles away, (but mostly from) a 30-40 mile radius.
Does it have the potential to draw tourists?
That was one of the things we looked at, with the proximity to Arlington, the stadiums, Six Flags.
Will this have a different customer than other outlet centers in the market?
I assume you're talking about Allen (Premium Outlets, north of Dallas) specifically. The DFW market is a large market. I think we're going to have some tenants that are unique to our center. Bloomingdale's is one of them. We think it will operate with little or no impact on the Allen center and draw from the south market.
What about Grapevine Mills as a competitor?
We see the Mills shopping experience and the outlet shopping experience as different. (The Mills experience) tends to be more of an entertainment-based trip. Ours is more of an a shopping-based trip.
What categories in the merchandise mix would you like to see get stronger?
We're down to our last 20,000 to 30,000 square feet. We're very happy with where we are merchandise-wise. We think we have a very good solid offering that will appeal to men and women, kids. With our last eight or nine spaces, we're trying to identify tenants that will set us apart.
What do these kinds of centers do in sales per square foot?
The outlet business has been great over the last decade. We've seen in this last economic downturn that the outlet centers have outperformed traditional retail. We would hope this center would perform in excess of $500 per square foot (compared with the industry average of $331). We certainly expect that would be the case.
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