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"Gloucester Premium Outlets, a retail center with about 450,000 square feet of space, will include a “town square” with outdoor dining and other amenities. The 55-acre project is a partnership between an affiliate of Simon Property Group and PREIT-Rubin Inc., an offshoot of the mall developer."
While I'm not sure of the impact to the Deptford Mall I can say that there seems to be mixed feelings about the proposed outlets. I just relocated to Gloucester Township from Philly and outside of what I imagine will be a traffice mess I'm pretty excited about the outlets coming to town. I wish more Jersey folks would weigh in.
I guess I'm in the minority but I am NOT happy about the outlets coming here. It's just about a mile from where I live. The traffic is going to be horrible. I'm disappointed to see the green space used for retail stores or anything else. Plus, I just read that there will be a tax abatement for 25 years on this project.
I don't see why they couldn't have done something with the Blackwood-Clementon road area. There's a lot of empty retail space going to waste.
I'm still trying to figure out exactly where this will be built.
Fifty five acres of agricultural land lost to a shopping center. I'm never going to go there.
It's being built right near Grenloch Lake, down the road from Camden County College. If you look on the map it's an area near Grenlock Lake bounded by College Drive on the south, Route 168 (Blackhorse Pike) on the west, Route 42 (North-South Freeway) on the east and Davistown Road on the north. Zimmerman Drive and Cooper Boulevard are in the area that will be redeveloped. It's basically the area that lies directly off of Route 42 exit 7B heading southbound.
As for the impact of the stores, I think in general outlets have a different vibe and attract a different customer base than you would find at traditional mall retail. People who like outlets seek them out and I'm sure these will become quite popular. However, I can't see them cannibalizing sales from the malls.
As for the impact of the stores, I think in general outlets have a different vibe and attract a different customer base than you would find at traditional mall retail. People who like outlets seek them out and I'm sure these will become quite popular. However, I can't see them cannibalizing sales from the malls.
Sometimes the stores start out as "outlet" but then it goes traditional. Many so called outlet malls are really a mix of outlet and traditional stores, not 100% outlet. Also, people will go to the outlets for a better deal and skip the mall. Deptford I believe is pretty close in proximity and likely the closest mall to take that hit.
The four anchors at Deptford are probably fine, but the inline stores (like GAP) might close the mall store and prefer the lower cost open space center, leaving Macerich left filling the spaces with mom&pop stores.
Considering that PREIT will be part owner of this outlet mall, I wouldn't be surprised if PREIT will sell off Voorhees Town Center, which is also nearby and has retail but not a strong retail component. If Deptford loses customers with shoppers going to outlets, Boscov's and Macy's might considering downsizing between Voorhees and Deptford. The Voorhees store will close in that type of scenario. PREIT will probably want to sell out while the property is somewhat stable right now before there is anchor loss and difficult redevelopment opportunities there, when the value of Voorhees Town Center will much less.
Sometimes the stores start out as "outlet" but then it goes traditional. Also, people will go to the outlets for a better deal and skip the mall. Deptford I believe is pretty close in proximity and likely the closest mall to take that hit.
If PREIT or Simon owned Deptford Mall, I don't think either would finance this outlet mall.
The four anchors at Deptford are probably fine, but the inline stores (like GAP) might close the mall store and prefer the lower cost open space center.
We'll see. I personally don't care either way. I'm sure I'll check out the new outlets at least once, but my general experience with outlets has been that while they have decent prices, they have rather limited selection. That's OK for some items, not for others. I may not care if I'm buying last years blender at half price, but my son may care if I try to dress him in last years Nike's.
I do question the location though. Traffic is already insane around there and this won't help at all. I feel bad for the people who live near it on the residential streets as it's going to force even more traffic on the local surface roads. The easy on-off from the highway is good, but the local roads aren't the kind to support the kind of traffic this center will bring. Instead of eating up more green space they should have simply re-habbed one of the existing plazas. Of course, with Gloucester Township waving a 25 year tax abatement at them...
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