Stephen Yalof, CEO and president of Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, Inc. (NYSE: SKT), participated in a video interview in conjunction with Nareit’s REITweek: 2022 Investor Conference in New York on June 7-9.
Yalof said Tanger was “thrilled” with its first quarter results this year compared with 2021, and that the REIT’s business and traffic are holding firm and its sales are good. After a “milestone year” in 2019, Yalof said that of course the pandemic caused problems across the retail industry, including tenant bankruptcies and brand-wide restructuring.
“[During the pandemic] where there were very few places for people to gather, Tanger Centers seemed to be the go-to location,” Yalof said. “Because of that, our stores opened early [and] the customers came back quickly.”
Yalof also discussed the idea of community, which is embedded within Tanger’s mission vision value statement, noting that in most of the markets where there’s a Tanger Outlet Center, the company is essentially “the center of the energy of the community.” He added that Tanger recently broke ground on a new shopping center in Nashville that is expected to produce 1,100 permanent jobs.
“Multiple that by the 36 existing shopping centers in the Tanger portfolio, and I think Tanger is a really important place in the community,” Yalof said.