In October 2012, two developers announced two outlet centers on I-485 a day apart, one in Steele Creek and one in Stallings. About six weeks later they agreed to build just one.
Charlotte Premium Outlets opened in Steele Creek in 2014, an open-air loop of 100 stores with every space leased. About 3,100 people had turned out for its job fair that May.
Room was approved for more space and a hotel. The outlet center kept to the loop it opened with, and the change came one storefront at a time.
In 2026 the change reached the anchor. Saks OFF 5TH, the first store announced for the center, began its closing sale in January, and by midyear more storefronts along the loop stood empty.
Two outlet plans a day apart
Two outlet centers were announced along Interstate 485 in October 2012, a day apart.
Tanger Factory Outlet Centers went first with Tanger Outlets Charlotte, set for land where the interstate meets Steele Creek Road, about eight miles southwest of uptown.
Its opening phase called for 350,000 square feet, with space held back for 50,000 more.
The next day, Simon Property Group and Paragon Outlet Partners answered with a center of their own in Stallings, at I-485 and Idlewild Road: 400,000 square feet, about 100 stores, under the name Charlotte Premium Outlets.
The rival plans stood side by side for about six weeks.
In late November 2012, Simon and Tanger announced they would build one center together.
Stallings was dropped, and no outlet center went up at the Idlewild Road interchange.
The Steele Creek land survived the merger, and the Tanger Outlets Charlotte name did not: the joint project took Simon's Charlotte Premium Outlets.
The partners split the ownership evenly. Their first joint plan called for more than 90 stores and a spring 2014 opening.
Simon took management and marketing, Tanger took site development and construction supervision, and leasing was shared.
Wider roads and a bus route before the stores
Before any store could open at Steele Creek, the roads around the site had to be rebuilt. Dixie River Road gained two lanes.
New traffic signals went up where Dixie River Road crosses Shopton Road and where Shopton Road meets New Fashion Way, and crews reworked intersections and ramps near Steele Creek Road and I-485.
All of it came close to $8 million.
The developers wanted public money for part of that bill.
In February 2013, they asked for a 10-year grant of 45 percent of the new property taxes the center would generate, capped around $6 million.
By the time the stores opened, the city and the county had agreed to hand back $5.1 million in property taxes over 10 years.
That arrangement drew objections.
When the partners broke ground on September 20, 2013, opposition focused on the tax reimbursements, on more traffic, and on storm runoff and what it could do to Lake Wylie.
The project went ahead anyway.
The rezoning approved that April had already reached past a single shopping center, leaving room on the larger site for up to 125,000 more square feet and a 120-room hotel.
The spring opening did not hold. At the groundbreaking the target had become summer 2014, and by March 2014 the date was fixed for July 31.
Buses got there first: in late June 2014, a month before opening, CATS Route 55 dropped an older loop and began running along Steele Creek, Dixie River, and Shopton roads to the site, carrying the people who would staff the stores before there were shoppers to carry.
A racetrack of 100 stores opens
Charlotte Premium Outlets opened on July 31, 2014, at 5404 New Fashion Way in Charlotte, North Carolina: an open-air outlet center of 100 stores on about 399,000 square feet, every space leased.
Charlotte had not seen a new shopping center of that size since Northlake Mall in 2005.
Shoppers walked a racetrack loop past nine buildings linked by roofed pedestrian passages, with five main entries, each carrying a directory.
The loop was split into four North Carolina zones, Coastal, Sand Hills, Piedmont, and Foot Hills, and each had its own canopies and colors, repeated out in the parking areas so visitors could tell which way they had come in.
Three fountains stood in the common areas.
The food court was the one large indoor room, with bar seating, just over 400 seats inside and out, and a media lounge with four flat-screen televisions.
Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH, the first tenant announced, was the most prominent anchor.
Staffing the stores drew a crowd of its own.
About 3,100 people came to a center-wide job fair at the Sheraton Charlotte Airport Hotel in May 2014, and by opening day about 900 permanent jobs had been filled.
The governor joined the ribbon-cutting on opening morning, alongside a city council member and executives from Simon and Tanger.
Lines formed before the doors opened, and thousands came that first day.
Satellite parking and shuttles had been arranged for a four-day celebration, yet the roughly 2,000 spaces on site filled, and traffic stacked up on the surrounding roads.
That weekend, cars overflowed into the nearby Berewick subdivision.
Temporary no-parking signs went up at its entrance, and the city's transportation department started working with the mall and residents on a longer-term answer.
More stores and new neighbors by 2016
By the summer of 2015, the center had passed 100 stores, and it marked its first anniversary with a public celebration on August 1.
Vera Bradley and Levi's had been scheduled to open that spring, and PacSun joined during the year.
Holiday programs, family events, seasonal hiring drives, and anniversary promotions played out in the common areas and across the parking lots.
The land around Berewick was filling in at the same time, with apartments, restaurants, grocery retail, and other construction moving ahead near the center.
Inside the loop, the changes came one storefront at a time, and the racetrack plan the center had opened with was left as it was.
By May 2016 the roster was long enough for a center-wide hiring event with more than 30 tenants taking part.
BeBe, Crabtree & Evelyn, Dress Barn, and Nine West were among them.
The stores close for spring 2020
At 7 p.m. on March 18, 2020, Charlotte Premium Outlets closed, one of the U.S. properties Simon shut during the first COVID-19 emergency.
The closing was announced to last through March 29.
The center stayed shut well past that date, while the state's reopening rules shifted through the spring.
On Saturday, May 9, 2020, shoppers were let back in under new rules.
The center opened at 11 a.m. and closed at 7 p.m. six days a week, and kept Sundays to noon until 6 p.m. Workers were screened and had their temperatures checked, and they were expected to wear face coverings, which shoppers were asked to wear too.
Social distancing was part of the plan, and seating and shared amenities were cut back while state restrictions stayed in force.
The shutdown was a pause in trading, and no redevelopment came with it.
Marc Jacobs and Shake Shack join the loop
In March 2021, Marc Jacobs announced its first North Carolina store for the center: about 3,000 square feet, between Puma and the food court.
More new names moved into existing spaces over the next few years.
Spencer's came in around the same time, BOSS Outlet, Vans, and Direct Tools were announced for spring 2022, and Greg Norman and HUK were announced in 2024 as new North Carolina locations.
Events used the parking lots and the loop itself.
On April 23, 2022, Movie Under the Stars returned with "Encanto," projected as dusk fell onto an inflatable screen 11 feet by 20 in lot B near the Under Armour entrance, with a DJ, face painting, and funnel cakes, and guests were asked to bring their own lawn chairs or blankets.
On National Outlet Shopping Day in June 2024, a foam zone went up in front of Saks OFF 5TH, the anchor the center had opened around, with stilt walkers and a mall-wide scavenger hunt.
A Starbucks kiosk cut its ribbon in November 2024.
Shake Shack was announced in 2024, and by February 2025 was set for later that summer; it opened on May 20, 2025, ahead of the target.
Buckle's opening went the other way: set for late 2025, it slipped into the next year.
Saks OFF 5TH leaves, and storefronts fill again
At the end of 2025, about 99 percent of the center was leased.
In January 2026, Saks Global, the parent of Saks OFF 5TH, entered Chapter 11, and late that month it announced it would close most OFF 5TH stores.
The Charlotte store was on the list.
Its closing sale began at the end of January, and the anchor that had been there since the first day is gone from the center.
Its exit came in the middle of a wide round of turnover. By the end of June 2026, the leased share had slipped to about 93 percent.
New tenants were already moving in: Buckle opened in February 2026 and Portland Leather Goods in April, while OFFLINE by Aerie and Champs Sports had been scheduled for June, Ulta for July, and Timberland for August.
All four are on the directory now.
The center is open through all of it, with Simon and Tanger each still owning half and Simon running it.
Market Hall, as the food court building is called, holds the food court and the media lounge, and three fountains stand in the common areas.
The entrances go by colors, Green, Blue, Orange, and Burgundy, where the four regional zones once named them.
Route 55 buses still stop on the outer ring road, and the Santa Photo Experience is set to open in Market Hall later in November.
The 2013 rezoning left room on the site for up to 125,000 more square feet and a 120-room hotel.
The outlet center is still a loop of about 399,000 square feet, and nearly every storefront on it is leased.
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