Tanger Westbrook Vs. Tanger Foxwoods

I recently had the opportunity to go on a Foxwoods team member tour of the new Tanger Outlet Center at Foxwoods scheduled to open May 21, 2015. Our group was required to sign a waiver and wear hard hats and reflective vests to enter the active construction area. Ironically, when we toured on a Thursday at 4:30 p.m., most construction workers had already left for the day.

Currently, the closest Tanger Outlet Center is in Westbrook right off I-95 exit 65, about 47 minutes away. This article will compare and contrast the two centers.

Our tour guide, a representative from Foxwoods Human Resources, explained that Tanger Foxwoods is currently 85% leased out with contractual agreements still being negotiated for the rest of the center. According to the Tanger website, there are six retail vacancies at the Tanger Westbrook center.

Tanger Foxwoods will be Tanger’s first indoor mall connected to two casinos. There will be entrances from the Fox Tower, at the former Craftsteak, and Grand Pequot Tower, near the former keno lounge. The Tanger Westbrook Center is an outside strip mall with four entrances from the parking lot.

Coming from the Fox Tower Tanger Mall entrance, our tour guide showed us spaces where stores and restaurants would open along with the start of the construction of an elevator shaft. Both ends of the complex will have elevators from the casino level (level 1) to the second level to make it ADA complaint. Tanger Westbrook is all on one level.

Our tour guide said that Johnny Rocket’s will be on the 1st level on the Fox Tower side. We also saw the future home of Pinkberry on the 2nd level. She mentioned that the center will have a Starbucks. Except for Pinkberry, she said that the center’s few restaurants would be located on either end of the center. A Tanger Foxwoods brochure also lists Au Bon Pain as a restaurant that will open. The Tanger Foxwoods center purposefully has few restaurants since it is connected to the Foxwoods complex which has over 30 restaurants, our tour guide explained. Tanger Westbrook food and beverage options are few and consist only of Christa’s Café, Pepperidge Farms, and Fiore’s Restaurant and Pizzeria. There is a Denny’s restaurant near the intersection of Flat Rock Place and Route 153. Folks pass Denny’s as they enter and leave the center from Route 153. At one time, Tanger Westbrook had a food court, but it closed years ago.

According to a map on the Tanger Foxwoods website, the 1st level of Fox Tower will consist of six retail and restaurant spaces along with a set of restrooms and a soda machine. Escalators and elevators will take shoppers to the second floor, the level which most of the shops will located. There will be 64 stores or restaurants on this level, the website shows, along with a management office, a shopper’s services desk and three sets of restrooms spread out throughout the level.

Guests can rent wheelchairs and strollers, receive coupon books, and buy gift cards at the guest service’s desk. Tanger Westbrook also has a guest service’s desk.

The Tanger Foxwoods map shows the center will have no ATM’s while Tanger Westbrook has one.

Our tour guide said decals will be placed on store windows to indicate whether they will accept Foxwoods Rewards (player’s club) points. Tanger Westbrook does not accept points from another business.

As we went on the tour, we saw how well the center was designed to allow natural light pour into the space. Many stores already had glass fronts with papers taped to them to indicate which store would occupy that space. Some spaces already sectioned off their storage areas. We saw two restrooms, most likely unisex, in the back of two stores in the middle of the mall.

The Tanger Foxwoods map shows that escalators will take guests to the 1st level of shopping on the Grand Pequot Tower side. In that area, there will be nine restaurants and stores along with a set of restrooms. The restrooms have already opened to the public.

The map shows that Tanger Foxwoods will have 79 stores and restaurants. The Foxwoods website reports there will be over 300,000 square feet of shopping. This compares to the 64 stores and restaurants at the 255,000-square-foot Tanger Westbrook Center, according to their website. The square footage does not include the Westbrook Cinemas 12, which is not attached to the mall but is listed in the Tanger Westbrook directory and within walking distance to the shops.

Tanger Foxwoods is all indoors with no doors going outside. Customers will have to park in the Grand Pequot Tower or Fox Tower Garages and walk through a casino concourse to access the shops. Tanger Westbrook has outside corridors with several parking lots allowing shoppers to park close to the stores or restaurants that they will be visiting.

Tanger Westbrook has a total of 15 vending machines while Tanger Foxwoods is slated to only have two.

The Tanger Westbrook has train and boat displays while Tanger Foxwoods will several fountains and trees in the rotunda areas. Our tour guide said Tanger will work with Foxwoods to have a Native American display to tie the mall into the rest of the complex.

Our tour guide said that the Tanger Foxwoods largest store will be a flagship H&M. Nike will be the second largest store in the mall. At Tanger Westbrook, the largest two stores are VF Outlet and Hanes Brands, #1 and #2, respectively.

A Tanger Foxwoods brochure states that outlets will include ”American Eagle Outfitters, Ann Taylor Factory Store, Au Bon Pain, Banana Republic Factory Store, Brooks Brothers Factory Store, Calvin Klein, Charlotte Russe, Clarks Bostonian, Coach, Columbia Sportswear, ECCO, Eddie Bauer Outlet, Express Factory Store, Fossil, G.H. Bass & Co., Gap Factory Store, H&M, Haggar, Hartstrings, J. Crew Factory, Kay Jewelers Outlet, LOFT Outlet, Michael Kors, New York & Company, Nike Factory Store, Old Navy Outlet, Skechers, Starbucks, Steve Madden, Talbots, Tommy Hilfiger. White House | Black Market, and many more.”

When looking at the Tanger Westbrook brochure, stores that will be at both shopping centers include Eddie Bauer, G.H. Bass & Co., Haggar, J. Crew, LOFT Outlet, and Old Navy Outlet.

The Tanger Westbrook center hours vary by season, according to their website, while Tanger Foxwoods is slated to open Sunday through Thursday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Fridays/Saturdays 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., according to the Foxwoods website.