(For more retail coverage, click GlobeSt.com/RETAIL.)
LIMERICK TWP., PA-Chelsea Property Group has broken ground on the 430,000-sf Philadelphia Premium Outlets. The shopping center, located on 78 acres, will contain more than 110 manufacturer-branded outlet stores.
Chelsea, headquartered in Roseland, NJ, is Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group's division for upscale outlet shopping centers. The Philadelphia center, going up at Lightcap Road off Route 422, will be a single-story, village-style project with a Colonial American architectural theme. It is scheduled to open in fall 2007.
"We are very much in the process of leasing," Michele Rothstein, Chelsea's senior vice president of marketing, tells GlobeSt.com, "but we're not ready to announce any tenants yet. There will be fashion-oriented designer brands and stores for every member of the family. We're named premium outlets for a reason."
As with other Chelsea and Simon projects, Rothstein too declined to disclose rental-rate ranges and the estimated construction cost. According to a published report about a recent Limerick Township Board of Supervisors' meeting, Chelsea's capital investment "will end up in the ballpark of $100 million."
The outlet project was endorsed by the board, which at the same time failed to endorse Las Vegas-based Boyd Gaming Corp.'s plan for a $325-million casino on an adjacent parcel. A Boyd spokesman confirms to GlobeSt.com that Boyd has withdrawn its casino application to the Pennsylvania State Gaming Commission.
"We selected Limerick Township," Rothstein says, "because we felt there was a synergy in the type of quality centers we build and the brand-conscious and quality-minded consumers who live and visit this region. Shoppers who seek the finest brands at outlet prices desire a more upscale atmosphere. This will be configured in our typical racetrack design, which has proven to be very popular."
The Philadelphia Premium Outlets was "always planned as a standalone one," Rothstein says. "Attention was somewhat diverted by news of a potential casino. We said we would work with our neighbors, but we were committed to this location with or without a casino."
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