HARLINGEN — The new $70 million Outlets at Corpus Christi Bay near Robstown is open for business.
Thursday will be the first shopping day at the 300,000-square-foot outlet mall, which has about 25 stores operating at the location and hopes to have 75 to fill out the available store sites.
Many if not most of the stores at the new outlet mall will be familiar to customers who shop at Rio Grande Valley Premium Outlets in Mercedes, which has over 100 stores at that location.
The outlet mall in Robstown is being developed by Lockard Construction, the Iowa firm which also is developing Sun Valley Square at 1900 Business 77 Sunshine Strip in Harlingen. The 8.5-acre Harlingen site is presently anchored by Chick-fil-A.
As of today, according to their websites, the different stores at the Robstown site appear to be Amish Furniture of South Texas, Francesca’s, GNC, H&M, Kitchen Collection, Maurices, Rack Room Shoes and Sunglass Corner.
Robstown is about a 1.5-hour drive from Harlingen.
For its 12,000 residents, today is a landmark for the city located in a mostly rural area of Nueces County just west of Corpus Christi.
“It will mean that we are diversifying our business and sales taxes for sure,” Robstown City Secretary Herman Rodriguez said yesterday. “We’re heavy on agriculture and heavy industry, and don’t have a lot of retail.”
The new outlet mall is located at the intersection of I-69E/I-77 and Terry Shamsie Boulevard.
“It means that we definitely have a tourist attraction and retail attraction, and being so close to the county fairgrounds, it definitely allows us to leverage that highway for tourism,” Rodriguez said of I-69E/I-77.
A planned Phase II of the Robstown outlet mall will add 150,000 more square feet of store space, although there are no set dates for beginning construction.
WHAT — Outlets of Corpus Christi Bay
WHERE — Robstown
WHO — About 25 stores are open for shoppers starting Thursday
HOW TO GET THERE — Take I-69E/I-77 north to Robstown for 121 miles and exit at Terry Shamsie Boulevard
