Tanger celebrates the opening of its 352,500-square-foot Charleston outlet center

Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Inc. holds a grand opening celebration Thursday for its newest shopping center, an outlet center of about 352,500 square feet in North Charleston.

The Greensboro, N.C., real estate investment trust set the Aug. 31 date in its second-quarter earnings release on July 26. Tenants include Gap, Banana Republic, Liz Claiborne, Nike, Adidas, Tommy Hilfiger, Guess and Reebok, the company said.

As of that release, the center was 72% leased, with tenant commitments for another 7% of the space. Tanger owns the Charleston center outright. Its other new center this summer, in Wisconsin Dells, Wis., is a 50% joint venture.

“We are very excited to see our two new centers nearing completion and look forward to both grand openings in August of this year,” Stanley K. Tanger, the company’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in July.

The Charleston project has been in the works for more than a year. In April 2005, Tanger listed Charleston among four previously announced sites in pre-development and leasing. By October 2005, it said it had met its internal requirement that half of a project’s space be preleased. The company closed on the land in the fourth quarter of 2005 and started construction, according to its annual report.

At the end of 2005, Tanger carried the Charleston project on its books at about $23.4 million, including about $10 million for land, the annual report shows.

With the opening, Tanger has an interest in four South Carolina outlet centers. It owns centers on U.S. 501 in Myrtle Beach, with about 427,000 square feet, and in the Hilton Head area, with about 393,000 square feet, along with a 50% interest in a center of about 402,000 square feet on U.S. 17 in Myrtle Beach, according to the annual report.

Tanger describes itself as one of the largest owners and operators of factory outlet centers in the United States. At the end of 2005, it owned 31 centers totaling about 8.3 million square feet, with more than 1,800 stores representing about 370 brands. It had 189 full-time employees as of Feb. 1.