Chicago company buys, renames Tanger Outlets mall

New ownership will spell a change for a 28-year retail center in Williamsburg, starting with its name.

Chicago-based Outlet Resource Group announced Monday it had acquired Tanger Outlets shopping center, which will operate as Outlets Williamsburg. The company and partner group Singerman Real Estate closed on the sale Friday.

Former owner Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, of Greensboro, N.C., opened the 276,331-square-foot shopping center in 1991, on some 27 acres north of Interstate 80.

Tanger Outlets grew over the years from 22 stores to upward of 50 stores, which have included American Eagle Outfitters, Brooks Brothers, the Gap, Old Navy and Nike.

Kristie Wetjen, the center's general manager, said 47 of its store spaces currently are leased, while up to eight additional tenants could fit in the vacant spaces, depending on how they are divided, for a 55-tenant maximum.

With the recent closing of the sale, Lisa Wagner, principal with the Outlet Resource Group, said her company would be 'launching' into discussions with brands that could fill the remaining empty stores.

Wetjen and Wagner did not provide figures reflecting traffic or visitors to Tanger Outlets in time for this story.

Outlet announced its purchase of Tanger Outlets along with three other shopping centers totaling about 601,000 square feet, in Nags Head, N.C., Ocean City, Md., and Park City, Utah.

Tanger Factory Outlet Centers said Monday it earned $128.7 million in net proceeds from selling the four centers, though representatives did not share a specific sales price for the Williamsburg location.

Wagner said Outlet hopes to forge partnerships with area tourism drivers, including the Amana Colonies, so the attractions can drive traffic to the shopping center and vice versa.

Tanger Outlets had been for up for sale since June 2018, according to a listing by Des Moines-based CBRE-Hubbell Commercial.

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