Screenshot from Outletsatrimall.com
By Kim Kalunian, WPRO News
Rhode Island may soon be getting its very own factory outlet mall.
The developers of the former Rhode Island Mall are hoping to open “The Outlets at Rhode Island Mall” late next year, and they’ve launched a wesbite for them.
- Visit the site: Outletsatrimall.com
Winstanley Enterprises of Mass. and Surrey Equities of New York bought the mall back in 2012 and had previously planned to turn the vacant shopping center into several big-box stores.
Now, Ed Silvera, President of Surrey Equities, says they will redevelop the enclosed mall portion into an outlet mall, the first outlet project in the state.
Silvera says they’re already negotiating pre-leases with retailers, though he did not specify which have expressed interest. Silvera expects to release an initial list of stores by the end of this year.
“We’ve had some really good interest from the outlet community,” he told WPRO News Wednesday.
The completed outlet mall would house between 40 and 60 outlet stores according to Silvera. He says it will have similar tenants to the Wrentham Outlets, but unlike Wrentham, it will not be an outdoor mall – they plan to keep the existing exterior of the Rhode Island Mall, but will completely renovate the inside.
Silvera says they plan to begin construction by the end of the first quarter of 2015, and hope to open the outlet mall by the holiday shopping season of 2015. If there are delays, Silvera says they’ll open by the first quarter of 2016.
Last year, Silvera told WPRO they planned to “de-mall” the property and convert it into several big box stores. They had originally planned to bring in retailers that do not have Rhode Island locations. But Silvera says they rethought that plan, and are now focused on bringing Rhode Island the state’s first factory outlet shopping center.
Silvera says they’ll get a better return on their investment by bringing something different to the state.
“Certainly it’s unique, and we felt that we wanted to do something special at the Rhode Island Mall,” he said.
The outlet project would breathe much-needed new life into the former Midland Mall, which began to lose retailers once their major anchor store, Filene’s, left the mall in the mid 1990’s and the Warwick Mall opened nearby.
Eventually the stores in the mall dwindled to just a few: LensCrafters, GNC and First Place Sports were the only surviving retailers when the mall officially closed in the spring of 2011.
Last year, Winstanley and Surrey sold off Wal-Mart and Kohl’s, which are connected to the vacant mall, in a $33 million dollar deal.
Before Winstanley and Surrey purchased the Rhode Island Mall for $38 million in 2012, the mall was owned by GLL Real Estate Partners from Orlando, Fla.
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