Simon Property exec: 'crazy' tenant interest in Tampa Premium Outlets
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Dec 12, 2014

For Danielle DeVita, Friday morning was a long time coming.

DeVita, senior vice president of development for Simon Property Group's Premium Outlet Group, joined other Simon and Pasco County officials on Friday to celebrate the groundbreaking of Tampa Premium Outlets, at the intersection of Interstate 75 and State Road 56 in Wesley Chapel. Construction began in October, and the center is slated to open in October 2015.

At 440,000 square feet and space for 110 retailers, the mall is large for a Simon Premium Outlets center, which range in size from 350,000 square feet to 440,000 square feet.

It will have a Key West feeling and is designed as one of Simon's "village" style centers. Construction will create 300 to 500 jobs, and Simon projects the center will employ 800 retail workers when it's built out.

DeVita, senior vice president for Simon's Premium Outlets division, chased the Tampa Premium Outlets site for a decade before the deal came together. From the beginning, the project was slated to be an outlet mall.

But in the last few years, outlet malls have become a major focus for retail giant Simon, one of the largest mall operators in the world. Outlets, DeVita said, are a "different animal" than other shopping experiences.

"It's different than just going to the mall," she said. "People will drive father distances; they will make a day of it. You go and you spend time and it's not a frantic rush to pick something up, and our customers love it."

Saks Off 5th Fashion Outlet, reported as an anchor years ago, is still an anchor, DeVita said. The center will include space for 110 retailers, some of which have already committed, though she declined to name them. There are also three outparcels, and the Simon Premium Outlets leasing team is in negotiations on those sites as well.

Interest has been strong, DeVita said, even in comparison to the other Simon outlet projects in the works. The property has the three major components that retailers look for in new locations: Access, visibility and a demographic base with disposable income.

"This is the one that tenants want to know about," she said. "This center has been kind of crazy. We had a hiatus that was a little bit of delay in getting in the ground on this, and the tenants stayed with it."

Simon declines to disclose specific construction costs, saying only that it is a "multimillion-dollar" project. Simon paid $14.6 million for the land in early October.

Ashley Gurbal Kritzer is a reporter for the Tampa Bay Business Journal.