Stephen Yalof, president and CEO of Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, Inc., participated in a video interview at Nareit’s REITworld: 2022 Annual Conference held in San Francisco on Nov. 15-17.
Tanger recently raised its 2022 earnings guidance and increased its dividend for the second time this year. Yalof explained that the REIT’s strategy is to continue to execute on leasing and going after new tenants that are not typical for its platform, including more luxury tenants and digitally-native brands.
Yalof also noted that Tanger has decentralized its operations team and given management teams at individual shopping centers the opportunity to run their own centers. The company has also leaned far more heavily into digital marketing, he said.
Looking ahead, Yalof said Tanger is “leaning heavily” into the Nashville market, with an anticipated center opening date of September 2023. The company also took over management of Palm Beach Outlets, which has been rebranded Tanger Outlets Palm Beach, “which will give us a great leg up in a market that is doing extremely well for all brands of retail, but for outlet retail in particular.”
Turning to ways in which Tanger is shaping its development pipeline, Yalof noted that there are a number of outlet centers that are independently owned “which we think are quite interesting, but there are also a number of shopping centers out there that are outlet center adjacent, that we think are kind of interesting for our brand of retail.”
Yalof also noted that Tanger is pivoting to becoming more involved in food and beverage, experiential, and entertainment-type uses.