Prime Retail's Construction Pipeline Tops 1M SF

BALTIMORE-Over the next two years Prime Retail plans to either develop, renovate or expand some 1.5 million sf of outlet centers in several states as well as in Puerto Rico. Driving the ambitious schedule, according to Prime Retail president Bob Brvenik, is demand for change in this space.

“Never before has this category experienced such an incredible surge of support and demand for evolution from both consumers and merchants alike-our goal is to truly redefine and recreate the industry with them,” he says in a statement.

Much of the new growth is centered around the company’s presence in Orlando, Fla., Brvenik tells GlobeSt.com. In 2005 the company acquired an outlet center on which it began a full scale renovation and expansion. Phase 1 of that expansion and rehab–some 490,000 sf–of the now Prime Outlets International just opened last week. Phases 2 and 3, which will add another 490,000 sf to the Orlando market, will deliver next April. “We will be adding another 290,000 sf to that outlet and renovating 200,000-sf at Shoppes at Prime Outlets International, which is just a couple of hundred yards away,” he says. Phases 2 and 3 are part of the 1.5 million sf pipeline the company just announced.

It is also planning to renovate the 250,000-sf, 115,000-sf and 155,000-sf, respectively, Prime Outlets that are located in St. Augustine, Williamsburg and Puerto Rico. In 2009 it will develop a 400,000-sf Prime Outlet in Grand Prairie and a 420,000-sf store in San Francisco’s East Bay. It will also expand its Ellenton store by 125,000 sf.