MEBANE -- Just off Interstate 40, the new Tanger Outlet Center has been rising steadily since December and is now preparing for tenants and its Nov. 5 opening.
Workers are scrambling to install electrical work and lay concrete. Storefronts are sitting vacant, with eager retailers waiting to move in.
The $60 million, 317,572-square-foot project is more than another shopping center. It's one of the few major retail centers being built in the country this year, and the largest retail development in the state.
And it's a potential spark for the Mebane area, expected to add more than 800 jobs and generate about $7 million in annual state sales-tax revenue.
Despite the shaky state of the economy, officials with Tanger say they are confident that an outlet center, as opposed to a traditional mall, will thrive amid shoppers' frugal ways.
The company is projecting 4.5 million visitors to the center annually and is placing an emphasis on fashion retailers such as Saks Fifth Avenue's Off 5th outlet to help draw shoppers.
The center's location, about 50 miles west of Raleigh and between the western edges of the Triangle and Greensboro, is ideal for catching travelers. For Tar Heel residents, it will be a new option among various regional malls and outlet centers in Morrisville and Smithfield.
"We're not building this project for right now," said Mike Buescher, the company's director of marketing. "We're building it for down the road. We're right on a major highway between two major markets. It's a great location for us."
Tanger hasn't been quiet about its opening, hosting a media preview day Tuesday and posting large "opening soon" banners along the highway.
When the Mebane center opens, Tanger will operate 32 outlet shopping centers in 22 states, including centers in Blowing Rock and Nags Head. Greensboro-based Tanger wanted to open another center in North Carolina, Buescher said.
"We're a [real estate investment trust], so we're privately funded," he said. "We could afford to build this center, and we have confidence in the shoppers of America and in the shoppers of North Carolina. We feel the economy is going to come back soon."
The addition of the Mebane center is welcome news industrywide as developers and mall management companies try to reverse a couple of rough years.
Not only are retail sales declining as the economy continues to struggle, but construction of new centers like the Tanger Outlet Center pretty much ground to a halt as financing for such projects dried up.
The Mebane center and another outlet center in Birmingham, Ala., are the only new outlet centers opening nationwide this year, said Linda Humphers, editor of Value Retail News, a publication that tracks the outlet business.
But the growth in outlet centers is still outpacing that of traditional enclosed malls.
In 2002, the Triangle was one of just a few markets that saw the addition of two new regional malls - The Streets at Southpoint in Durham and Triangle Town Center in Raleigh. But since then, development of large malls nationwide has slowed in favor of smaller centers.
"Shoppers who are concerned about the economy know where to shop," Humphers said. "Throughout the years, outlet centers have had their hills and valleys, but right now they are really looked upon favorably."
To entice shoppers, Tanger has put together a lineup of about 80 tenants, shying away from home goods tenants and other non-fashion retailers that sometimes frequent outlet centers.
In addition to the Saks Off 5th outlet, other prominent names that will soon be hanging signs in the center include QVC, Brooks Brothers, Coach, J. Crew, Gap, Hanesbrands, Tommy Hilfiger, Nike, Nine West, Levi's and OshKosh B'Gosh.
General manager Kathleen Hackshaw said the center is about 90 percent leased. Hackshaw said the center will fill the remaining 10 percent of its storefronts with temporary tenants who wanted to test out the center before signing a long-term lease.
For retailers, outlet centers offer an opportunity to reach more shoppers and offload merchandise that is going out of season.
"If the retailers don't feel like they can expand, they don't," Humphers said. "But for outlets, they are expanding."
The center's grand opening is scheduled for Nov. 5, just a few weeks before the start of the ever-crucial holiday shopping season. Many retailers make up to 40 percent of their annual sales in November and December.
Just three weeks after its opening, it will participate in Tanger's chainwide midnight madness event, when its centers open at 12:01 a.m. on the Friday after Thanksgiving for early-bird shoppers.
But the effect of the new outlet center has already been felt. In addition to the estimated $7 million in sales tax revenue and $200,000 in property tax revenue annually, area businesses are also expecting a ripple effect of economic stimulus.
The area around the outlet center is home to a couple of gas stations, a self-service car wash and restaurants including Waffle House, McDonald's and the Blue Ribbon Diner.
Diner manager Michael Newsholme said that the 300 workers building the center have already become regulars but that the restaurant is really gearing up for when the center opens.
"Nov. 5 is going to be the day," he said. "We're going to start preparing twice as much of everything: spaghetti sauce, turkey. ... What we do on Saturdays, we're planning for it to be like that nonstop."
