Camarillo to Get Another Outlet Center: Prime Retail

Camarillo is about to get another retail outlet center--a stone’s throw from an existing competitor.

Prime Retail Inc. of Baltimore plans to build a 220,000-square-foot complex on 31 acres at the southeast corner of Ventura Boulevard and Las Posas Road. The development, to be called Prime Outlets at Camarillo, will be next to the existing rival Camarillo Premium Outlets. Only a movie theater will separate them.

Prime Outlets will be built next to the Edwards Theatres complex, which plans to expand from 12 screens to 22, said Brian Lewbert, a Prime Retail spokesman.

Currently in discussions with prospective merchants, Prime Retail expects to have about 50 tenants, including brand-name designers, specialty outlet stores, bookstores and restaurants.

Developers describe the design as an outdoor village style that will incorporate landscaping and walkways between the stores.

Ventura County also is home to another retail outlet center, Oxnard Factory Outlet, which is half-owned by Prime Retail in a joint venture with St. Louis-based Fru-Con Development Corp.

This fall, Premium Outlets, operated by Chelsea GCA Realty of Roseland, N.J., expanded by 45,000 square feet to 395,000. It plans an additional 20,000-square-foot expansion by October 1999.

All this retail outlet growth in one area runs the risk of saturating the market, said Sanford R. Goodkin of Sanford Goodkin & Associates, a San Diego-based market research firm.

Although Camarillo is accessible and the market is healthy, Goodkin said, the survival and success of the centers will depend on whether the new center offers different merchants from Premium Outlet.

“People will go where they think they can use their time efficiently,” Goodkin said.

But the developer sees benefits in being near competing centers.

“This location is already established as an outlet destination that does well,” Lewbert said.

Prime Retail is a real estate investment trust that owns, develops, builds, buys and manages manufacturers’ outlet centers throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.

The new center is expected to open in spring 2000.