Abe Rosenthal employs a simple strategy for developing factory outlet malls like the one his company is building at Interstate Highway 10 and U.S. Highway 49.
Find a community on an interstate highway between two urban areas. Build a spacious, well-landscaped shopping center and lease space to manufacturers to run their own stores and sell at far below retail prices.
Add an extensive food court and a children’s playground. The strategy has made Baltimore-based Prime Retail one of the nation’s leading developers of factory outlet malls, with 15 centers in 12 states and four more to be built this year.
“They are all on a major interstate between two metropolitan areas, so we have two cities that act as magnets for traffic,” said Rosenthal, in town to celebrate the groundbreaking for Gulfport Factory Shops.
“We also like, if we can, to get a tourist destination,” he said. “Gulfport met all the criteria.”
The company expects Gulfport Factory Shops, scheduled to open in the fall, to attract 2 to 4 million shoppers a year.
