The Outlet Shoppes of Cleveland is back in stock again

Proposed site location of the Outlet Shoppes of Cleveland is between the Shoreway highway and South Margin Road, just south of Burke Lakefront Airport in downtown Cleveland. More infrastructure is needed to support the retail center and additional development being considered nearby (LoopNet). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

With the goal of opening its doors to customers in the spring of 2022, the Outlet Shoppes of Cleveland is the subject of local and national leasing activities now underway. The project, originally proposed several years ago and on the other side of the Shoreway highway, is back and is being pursued aggressively by its national developer.

According to project’s backers, they say that “remarkable progress” has been made behind the scenes on developing the 320,000-square-foot retail center. It is proposed to be built on roughly 14 acres of city-owned land between the Shoreway and South Marginal Road, just south of Burke Lakefront Airport.

Developer Horizon Group Properties, based in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, IL, last week announced that it has retained real estate broker CBRE as the local listing agent for the entertainment as well as the food/beverage leasing at the Outlet Shoppes of Cleveland.

Horizon, which owns and operates eight designer outlet centers across the USA, will handle the national leasing. That includes populating about 60 high-end retail spaces in the shopping center with national names that are identified in its marketing brochure.

Although conceptual site plans and renderings were included in the brochure, more detailed plans for The Outlet Shoppes at Cleveland will be revealed soon, and will feature architectural design from Adams and Associates Architecture.

A conceptual site plan for the Outlet Shoppes of Cleveland, proposed by Horizon Group Properties and CBRE (Loopnet).

“The Greater Cleveland market is dynamic with over 3.8 million people in a 60-mile radius, and downtown Cleveland is growing both in terms of residents and tourists, which are all critical elements for a successful outlet shopping center” said Gary Skoien, president and CEO of Horizon Group Properties, in a written statement.

“Combining HGP’s leasing team, which has vast experience working with quality national outlet tenants, and CBRE?s expertise in entertainment, food and beverage will result in highly appealing stores, restaurants, bars and family gaming venues in a unique setting,” Skoien added.

For CBRE, Joseph Khouri will lead the entertainment leasing along with Vince Mingo, while industry veteran Stephen Taylor will lead the food/beverage leasing. Nearly 90,000 square feet in the two-level structure is proposed to be for restaurants and entertainment, including a rooftop bar and
recreation area.

Horizon’s efforts haves focused on the outlet industry, comprised primarily of national retailers. Much of Horizon’s leasing activities have been behind the scenes. However, they reportedly have presented the Outlet Shoppes of Cleveland project at multiple International Council of? Shopping Centers events and have had numerous site visits in Cleveland, Khouri said in a Nov. 19 e-mail.

How the Outlet Shoppes of Cleveland could look from the Shoreway. Among the entertainment options considered for the retail center are a cinema, sports-themed restaurant or a gamer-themed cafe (LoopNet).

“Because there is limited outlet presence in the metropolitan area, there is limited brand name retail in downtown and the distance to competing retail is so great, the response from outlet tenants has been extremely positive,” Khouri wrote.

The nearest outlet retailers to the geographic center of Cleveland are the Aurora Farms Premium Outlets (a 39-minute, 31.6-mile direct drive east of Public Square in light traffic) and the Ohio Station Outlets in Lodi (a 48-minute, 46.7-mile direct drive south from Public Square).

“We are currently negotiating lease terms with prospective tenants but we never release tenant names at this stage in the process,” Khouri added. “Names being used currently are representative of some of the brands we typically expect in our centers but are for illustrative purposes only.”

Construction costs are not yet available, however typical per-square-foot costs for building indoor retail centers suggest the Outlet Shoppes at Cleveland could be at least a $100 million investment.

That doesn’t include infrastructure. A Cleveland city official who spoke off the record said the cost of adding or adjusting infrastructure to support the retail center would be in the “millions of dollars — which is why nothing has happened there.”

The western end of the Outlet Shoppes of Cleveland, facing toward downtown and North Coast Harbor, may offer indoor and outdoor food and entertainment venues (LoopNet).

Those costs include adding sanitary sewers, constructing sidewalks to the nearby South Harbor terminal station of the light-rail Blue/Green Lines from Shaker Heights, and possibly realigning South Marginal Road.

Also, site control has apparently yet to be resolved. The lakefront land is owned by the city. Neither Horizon or CBRE representatives were prepared to discuss the site control situation. According to municipal law, the City of Cleveland cannot sell lakefront land without a public vote.

“Horizon continues to work with the City of Cleveland on land entitlements, utilities and other infrastructure for the site and additional capacity to stimulate development of the lake shore for other uses,” Khouri said.

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