Factory Outlet Brings in New Partner to Sign Up Tenants
Ventura County’s factory outlet war is heating up. Within six months, developers expect to have two such centers in operation, with about 150 manufacturers offering name-brand clothing and other merchandise at deep discounts.
Operators of the county’s first center, Oxnard Factory Outlet, which opened in June, have brought in a new partner to help sign up tenants for the mall’s planned second phase. And an eager rival, Camarillo Factory Stores, is expected to open in early 1995, having finally cleared the legal hurdles that plagued it for more than a year.
Prime Retail Inc., a Baltimore developer with interests in nine outlet centers nationwide, has agreed to purchase a 30% interest in Oxnard Factory Outlet from its owners, U. S. Outlets of California Inc. and St. Louis-based Fru-Con Development Corp.
Oxnard Factory Outlet, just off the Ventura Freeway between Rice and Rose avenues, is doing “very well,” according to Keith Kennon, a partner in U. S. Outlets. Construction of a second phase is due to start within two months, with completion expected during the first quarter of 1995.
Kennon says the center has 48 tenants, including Benetton, Fila, Geoffrey Beene, and Leon Max. When the second phase opens, he expects to have 90 to 100 stores. The entire project will cover 300,000 square feet of retail space and will cost $32 million, he said.
Prime’s financial investment is welcome, Kennon notes, “but the main reason we’re happy to have them as partners is their leasing know-how. There are about 400 manufacturers now marketing products through outlet centers, and Prime Retail has relationships with most of them.”
Eventually, Kennon said he wouldn’t be surprised to see Prime buy out the original developers. U. S. Outlets is involved in a variety of other commercial developments, while Fru-Con’s role in the Oxnard center is strictly as a financial backer, he noted.
Five miles to the south, work is under way on Camarillo Factory Stores, a 50-outlet development that was the target of several lawsuits and threatened suits concerning its potential impact on the area. With the legal problems finally overcome, completion is scheduled for early February.
A spokeswoman for the developer, Chelsea GCA Realty Inc., won’t name any tenants that have signed up, but says, “I can assure you that we already have several well-known manufacturers.”
The spokeswoman adds that Chelsea is confident that there are enough bargain-hunters in the area to support both centers, even though they’ll be only a few minutes’ drive apart.
Chelsea is a real-estate investment trust with offices in Newport Beach and Roseland, N. J. The trust owns 13 outlet centers nationwide.
The REIT’s spokeswoman wouldn’t say how much is being spent on the 165,000-square-foot Camarillo center.
