Fashion Outlets of Niagara Falls opens
On July 19, 1982, Fashion Outlets of Niagara Falls opened at 1900 Military Road. The center opened inside a former King's discount store building.
Earlier uses at the same location included a roller rink, a pet shop, and a Henry's Hamburgers. The property sits in the Town of Niagara and uses a Niagara Falls mailing address.
Downtown Niagara Falls is about fifteen minutes away. The Canadian border is nearby, and cross-border traffic was part of the center's early customer base.
The outlet format fit the early 1980s shift toward manufacturers selling directly to shoppers, using factory outlet stores to move excess inventory, irregular merchandise, and last-run goods.
The center opened in a tourism-heavy area with established visitor traffic. The building offered enclosed, indoor shopping and a direct drive-up location on Military Road.
It was positioned as a convenient stop for tourists and Canadian shoppers looking for discounted brand goods in one place.
A competing outlet center opened downtown first. Rainbow Centre Factory Outlet opened on July 2, 1982, in downtown Niagara Falls as part of a redevelopment project.
Fashion Outlets opened a few weeks later, on July 19, 1982, on Military Road. For a period, both locations drew outlet shoppers in the same region.
Inside Fashion Outlets, shopping was built around a simple indoor walk. Shoppers moved store to store under one roof, compared prices, and carried purchases back through the corridors.
The enclosed design kept the center usable through winter weather and helped it hold visitors for longer trips.
Off Fifth arrives, then Prime Retail buys the outlets (1995–1997)
In 1995, the Niagara Falls Factory Outlets completed a major expansion. The project added 50 stores and increased the center's retail footprint.
The larger tenant roster changed the scale of the property and gave shoppers more reasons to make the trip and stay longer once they arrived.
The expansion also added a Saks Fifth Avenue outlet store branded as "Off Fifth." The new anchor brought a higher-profile tenant to the center and strengthened its mix of national brands.
With more stores and a recognizable luxury outlet name in the directory, the center moved toward a broader cross-border and regional audience, including shoppers coming from the Toronto area.
The expansion widened the gap with the downtown outlet competitor.
Rainbow Centre Factory Outlet remained open at the time, but the Military Road center now offered a larger, updated outlet layout with easier drive access and extensive surface parking.
On December 2, 1997, Prime Retail Inc. bought the Niagara Falls outlet center for $90 million.
After the sale, the center moved under a company that focused on outlet centers and their day-to-day leasing and operations. Prime Retail later became part of The Lightstone Group.
Renovation completed in 2009, cross-border shopping peaks
During the mid-to-late 2000s, the center adopted the 'Fashion Outlets Niagara Falls USA' name.
In 2009, the outlet center completed a $12 million renovation and updated its tenant lineup. The project refreshed the enclosed interior and common areas and supported a broader mix of stores.
The timing lined up with a strong stretch of cross-border shopping. The Canadian dollar reached parity with the U.S. dollar, and trips from Ontario increased.
By that time, the downtown outlet option was already gone. Rainbow Centre Factory Outlet had closed in September 2000, after years of struggle, and it did not receive major updates after its opening.
Macerich buys in, then builds the big wing
In 2011, The Macerich Company bought Fashion Outlets of Niagara Falls for $200 million from a subsidiary of AWE Talisman Company.
The deal included the assumption of existing debt. At the time, the center was about 526,000 square feet.
Macerich followed the purchase with a large expansion project. A new 175,000-square-foot enclosed wing opened on October 23, 2014.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on November 6, 2014, and opening events continued through November 9.
The expansion was part of a $71 million development program. It added about 50 stores and increased the property to roughly 700,000 square feet, with the store count rising to more than 200 at its peak.
The project also improved interior common areas and expanded surface parking. It included new stormwater management features and landscaping tied to the additional building area and parking lots.
Cleanup rules under the new asphalt and ponds
The 2014 expansion required environmental work tied to past uses of the land around the outlet center.
The expansion area included parcels that had been part of the former 34-acre Sabre Park Mobile Home Community and other nearby properties with known contamination concerns.
The investigation and cleanup work ran through New York State's Brownfield Cleanup Program. Soil testing identified contaminants, including vinyl chloride and other compounds.
Remediation work included excavation and screening of impacted soil and debris.
Materials were separated into hazardous and non-hazardous waste streams. Some treated material was reused beneath new parking areas after processing.
Deed restrictions were recorded that limited future use, including restrictions that prohibited residential development in certain areas.
The broader site had been delisted from the state's Inactive Hazardous Waste Disposal Sites Registry in 1995.
The project included about 225,000 square feet of clay-lined stormwater detention ponds and about 273,750 square feet of landscaping.
The parking expansion added roughly 1,720,000 square feet of asphalt surface area tied to the new wing and the expanded lots.
Vacancies, financing, and the October 2026 date
By the 2020s, Fashion Outlets of Niagara Falls was operating as a large enclosed outlet center but dealing with tighter financing conditions.
A CMBS loan originated in 2010 with a 6.4% fixed interest rate. The loan was transferred to special servicing in July 2020 due to imminent maturity default risk.
In December 2020, Macerich secured a three-year extension and encumbered the expansion property as additional collateral.
In March 2024, another extension moved the maturity date to October 6, 2026. A later filing stated the loan had been in default effective October 6, 2023.
Occupancy declined during the same period. The center was about 92% occupied in 2019 and fell to about 70% by mid-2025.
Other reported points put occupancy at 74% in 2017, 79% in early 2023, and 83% by December 2023. The property's value also moved down. An appraisal fell to $98 million by November 2023.
Events, new tenants, and an anchor exit in 2026
The property used programming to support foot traffic.
It hosted a pre-eclipse Solar Celebration on April 6, 2024, with on-site activities (music, themed selfie station, giveaways/coupons), and it distributed eclipse glasses to the first 500 attendees.
It held a Lunar New Year event on January 24, 2025, in the food court, with scratch-off cards for early guests and prizes tied to promotional items and store gift cards.
For the 2025 holiday season, it ran Santa photos from November 28 through December 24. It scheduled timed in-mall events such as community programs, charity tie-ins, and gift-wrapping.
New stores were still announced. In 2023, the center added or publicized eight new retailers: Hot Topic, Cinnabon, Dream Juice Bar, TimeX, NY Lexor, Arroyo Boutique, Exotic Snack Factory, and Toy Kingdom.
The biggest change was at the anchor level. Saks Off 5th, in place since the 1995 expansion, announced in November 2025 that it planned to close stores starting in January 2026, and Niagara Falls was on the list.
As of early January 2026, Fashion Outlets of Niagara Falls is a roughly 700,000-square-foot, single-level outlet center with about 120 stores, built to hold more than 200.
It operates with three primary anchors, a 10-unit food court, and surface parking with motorcoach capacity.
Key tenants include Nike Clearance Store, Gap, Coach, Pandora, Adidas, Under Armour, H&M, Polo Ralph Lauren, Kate Spade New York, Michael Kors, Vera Bradley, Columbia, and Timberland, with Saks OFF 5TH approaching its closing.
Dining includes Applebee's plus Tai Chi Bubble Tea, Charley's Philly Steaks, Auntie Anne's, Cinnabon, and LaRosa Pizzeria.
The center continued to market itself as part of the regional tourism circuit.
It was often described as the third-largest tourist draw in the Buffalo-Niagara area after Niagara Falls State Park and the Seneca Niagara Hotel and Casino.
