"Long Island is one of the most under-retailed areas of the country," said Steven Tanger, the Greensboro, NC-based developer's president and chief operating officer, speaking here at Hofstra University during a luncheon put on by the school's Institute of Real Estate. The area has only 7.4 sf of retail per resident compared to the 21.3 sf in the rest of the US, he says.

The Deer Park center is Tanger's second on Long Island. The first is the 729,315-sf outlet mall in Riverhead that the firm opened in 1997. The company owns 35 centers across the country.

The road to opening both centers has been rough, Tanger says, stressing that special-interest groups worked hard to delay both projects. "Developing in Long Island is a arduous process," he says.