It’s time to wrap up my Las Vegas series with this relatively unremarkable little bonus, the Las Vegas Outlet Center. Located on South Las Vegas Boulevard a few miles south of the strip, this half million square-foot, fully enclosed outlet center strays a bit outside of the kind of thing we’d usually devote inches to on Labelscar, but it does have a few neato indoor mall features that merit inclusion. I’m probably being a bit of a completist here, but I feel that it’s part of the overall picture.
Since this is an outlet mall, it doesn’t have any real anchors… apart from a VF Factory Outlet (the anchor of outlet malls everywhere!) and a Nike store and some other miscellany. The Las Vegas Outlet Center does host many of the common players at outlet malls everywhere, including Van Heusen and Music For Less and Nautica, many offering items at a dubiously small discount from what they’re sold for at full-priced stores. Like a lot of outlet malls, the decor leaves something to be desired, with exposed girder rooflines and a general lack of true decor. Unlike the pretty-cool Mills Malls, the Las Vegas Outlet Center is pretty cut-rate. The floorplan is almost like two “E”s stacked on top of one another; judging by the different roofing colors from the satellite photo and the fact that the mall is designed as a mirror image of itself, I wouldn’t be surprised if its two halves were constructed at different times. But maybe not.
But, you know what? The Las Vegas Outlet Center has two food courts, and a weird neon rainbow ceiling, and those are both worth something, right? This ends my trek to Nevada: beginning with the next post, we’ll return to the good ol’ chilly, stodgy northeast.
All the off-Strip malls in Vegas were smaller than I would have expected. I figured they’d be big, to provide the populace with climate controlled semi-public places to hang out.
This one used to be the Belz outlet, right? Sure looks like it. Belz must have gone under. The one in Orlando is now a Pr1me outlet (yes, with the 1).
This one seems a lot brighter than the ancient-looking Orlando one, though…
This mall was in fact Belz Outlet World. The mall itself was constructed in 2 phases. The original center court (north end food court) originally had a laser light show for a few years when the mall first opened in the mid 90’s and the new center court (south end food court) had a carousel. I have not been there in a while so it may or may not still be there. The current owners purchased this mall and the Primm Valley Outlets (a high end outlet center 30 miles south of Las Vegas) about the same time the Las Vegas Premium Outlets were constructed by the same company.
A couple more history highlights on this mall, it did have a large Spiegl store that served as an anchor when the 2nd phase opened but closed a few years back. Also, this mall was extremely popular before the other 2 area outlet malls were built. When the 2nd phase opened, the entire mall was 100% occupied and demand was so great that Tommy Hilfiger opened a store in a tent in the parking lot for about a year until they were able to get a space in the mall.
JP, that one in Orlando just sucks now.
I went to the one in Las Vegas either in 1996 or 2000, I forget which. I bought an awesome pair of bright blue sneakers.
They have a freaking Royal Doulton china store there ( Always makes me think of Hyacinth Bucket ‘Boquet’) I also worked in Primm (Stateline) at the Fashion Outlet mall in Starbucks.. I hated commuting to work everyday it was soooooo far…
I used to work at the Brown Shoe Closet (right next to Royal Doulton). Brown was formerly known as Etienne Aigner, and I left there during the remodel from Aigner to Brown. I also worked there when it was purchased and the name changed from Belz to LV Outlet Center. I remember the Speigel outlet – it used to be where the VF Outlet is now.
Bob, the amenities for locals here in Vegas are pretty unspectacular. They save the wow factor for tourists on the Strip.
@Kristen, Yes it was named Belz (the name has no real zing) and the owner renamed it to the LV Outlet Stores. The same owner has another mall it calls the LV Premium Outlet Stores near downtown. Both malls are heavy tourist attractions. I used to drive a taxi and passengers from UK, Europe mainland, Australia, China, Japan, and everywhere make their shopping pilgrimage to one of these two at least once on vacation in LV.
During 2009-2010, this mall underwent major renovations. It is now billed as Las Vegas Premium Outlets South (there is a Las Vegas Premium Outlets on the north end of town too). There are now outdoor areas in addition to the enclosed shopping areas. With the renovation, many new stores moved in or expanded, most notably Toys”R”Us and the Disney Store. The mall is now a major outlet shopping destination for tourists and locals alike.
I lived in both Orlando and las Vegas and I can say that the outlet malls in Orlando are better than Vegas. I came here a lot before it was renovated and it looks a thousand times better! They had a fossil store there that got significantly expanded and I also think they added an esprit store. Sadly we moved away before we could enjoy any of these changes. 🙁