Empire Outlets, New York City’s first outlet center, celebrated its grand opening, with a ribbon-cutting and with business leaders and government officials in attendance.
The 340,000-square-foot center, located in the borough of Staten Island, is easily accessible by the Staten Island Ferry.
“I know that many of you took the boat over with hordes of New York City tourists, and you saw them head right back over to Manhattan,” said Travis Noyes, senior vice president of marketing at Empire Outlets, during the ceremony. “Well, now that’s over. Today we give those tourists a reason to get off that boat and to shop at all our stores and visit all of our restaurants.”
Developed by BFC Partners and designed by SHoP Architects, Empire Outlets features expansive open corridors and contemporary materials reflective of the industrial waterfront. Such vertical circulation elements as grand staircases, elevators and streamlined escalators guide shoppers as they move from the waterfront up to the outlet center.
Among the stores are Banana Republic, Brooks Brothers, Columbia Sporting Goods, Gap Factory, H&M, Jockey, Nike Factory and Old Navy. Additional retailers, including American Eagle Outfitters, Crocs and Nordstrom Rack, will be opening stores there through the summer. Scheduled for this summer is a 40,000-square-foot food-and-beverage deck offering sweeping views of the Manhattan skyline. The dozens of food concepts will include MRKTPL, Staten Island’s very first artisanal food hall.
