Outlet mall gets thumbs-up

Rendering of what the proposed Daytona Beach outlet mall might look like.

DAYTONA BEACH The $100 million outlet mall project that's expected to create 300 construction jobs and 800 permanent jobs took another step toward reality Thursday night.

The city's Planning Board voted unanimously to rezone 39 acres south of LPGA Boulevard and east of Interstate 95 from industrial park to planned commercial development uses for the roughly 400,000-square-foot retail shopping center.

Site work on the vacant undeveloped property could begin as early as this summer, bringing Volusia County closer to a new place to shop, 400 full-time jobs with salaries ranging from $32,000-$52,000 annually and $700,000-$900,000 each year in new local property tax revenues, said Rob Merrell, the Daytona Beach attorney steering the project.

I am more than tickled pink, Planning Board member Cathy Washington said. Not having to travel to Orlando or St. Augustine is just a jewel. It's something that's been needed a long time in this area.

If all goes well with a few more approvals needed from the City Commission, sometime in 2016 or 2017 the new retail cluster could bring in big-name stores like Banana Republic, Calvin Klein and Nike.

I don't think there's any way you can be negative about what this will do for commerce in Daytona Beach and Ormond Beach, Planning Board member Bob Hoitsma said.

It would be the first outlet mall in Volusia and Flagler counties, and it would be roughly 50 miles from the nearest outlet mall to the north the 340,000-square-foot St. Augustine Premium Outlets complex at the I-95/State Road 16 interchange in St. Johns County and roughly 60 miles from the nearest outlet mall to the southwest, the Orlando International Premium Outlet along International Drive.

The force behind the Daytona outlet mall is Greensboro, North Carolina-based Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Inc.

Merrell told Planning Board members that Tanger has created 45 other outlet malls since its first in 1981, and the company now has 14 million square feet of retail space with 2,900 individual stores. According to its website, Tanger has retail centers spread across the U.S. and Canada, but its only existing Florida mall is the 22-year-old complex in Fort Myers that generates about $500,000 in property taxes annually.

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Outlet mall gets thumbs-up