According to Washington Post.com, hundreds were in line to apply for the 900 openings at a new high-end outlet shopping center.
Tanger Outlets at National Harbor is slated to open Nov. 22, in time for the year’s biggest shopping season. It brings a collection of about 80 high-end outlet stores, including Coach, Michael Kors, Brooks Brothers and Calvin Klein.
“These days, you need more than one job,” said Coates, a post office worker who lives in Fort Washington with two daughters and is looking for a second source of income. “Even if it’s just a little bit — a little will help pay some credit cards, for child care, for after-school activities.”
The new stores bring new jobs to rapidly growing Prince George’s County and an opportunity for the county to boost its profile as a regional retail destination.
County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D) has promoted projects such as Tanger Outlets as crucial to his efforts to lure more jobs to the county. He said Tuesday that the new shopping center will make National Harbor an even greater employment hub and a bigger regional attraction.
“For the first time, people are going to come to Prince George’s County to shop,” Baker said. “It is just exciting.”
The project, planned to be completed after only a year of construction, demonstrates Prince George’s rise as a regional competitor and its commitment to attracting new businesses and jobs and expanding its commercial tax base, Baker said.
Between 7,000 to 10,000 applicants were expected at the job fair, which continues Wednesday. Retailers and housekeeping and security contracting firms handed out applications and held one-on-one interviews for part-time and full-time positions that need to be filled in the next two months.
“In order to get the stores up and running, the hiring is going to be a critical piece,” said Christi M. Wallace, general manager at Tanger Outlets at National Harbor.
There is growing demand for employment in the area after years of a struggling economy. The unemployment rate in Prince George’s stood at 7.1 percent in July. The retail jobs could increase the county’s employment base and reduce its standing as a bedroom community where six out of 10 working residents leave the county for work.
The $100 million, 350,000-square-foot shopping center is 100 percent leased, Wallace said, and most stores will be ready to open the weekend before Thanksgiving.
It will be one of 45 Tanger outlet centers in the United States and Canada and the closest to an urban center, said Bruce E. Fry, assistant vice president of operations at Tanger.
“We expect it will be one of our top-performing locations,” he said.
The shopping center, just outside the Capital Beltway on Oxon Hill Road, will give Washington area shoppers another alternative for bargain shopping and offer county residents retail options they have long been asking for.
See the full story here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/tanger-outlets-brings-new-jobs-and-a-chance-to-boost-prince-georges-retail-profile/2013/09/17/471470ce-1ca0-11e3-8685-5021e0c41964_story.html
