Rhode Island Mall to become R.I.’s first outlet shopping center

A CONCEPTUAL RENDERING shows what the Rhode Island Mall in Warwick might look like after it has been converted into a factory outlet center. Property owners Winstanley Enterprises LLC and Surrey Equities LLC plan to open Outlets at Rhode Island Mall in the fall of next year. / COURTESY WINSTANLEY ENTERPRISES LLC AND SURREY EQUITIES LLC
A CONCEPTUAL RENDERING shows what the Rhode Island Mall in Warwick might look like after it has been converted into a factory outlet center. Property owners Winstanley Enterprises LLC and Surrey Equities LLC plan to open Outlets at Rhode Island Mall in the fall of next year. / COURTESY WINSTANLEY ENTERPRISES LLC AND SURREY EQUITIES LLC

WARWICK – Rhode Island Mall owners Winstanley Enterprises LLC and Surrey Equities LLC plan to turn the 160,000-square-foot space into factory outlets in the style of Wrentham Village, slated to open in the fall of 2015.

According to a brochure published on Surrey Equities’ website, Outlets at Rhode Island Mall would feature “top manufacturers and retail outlets,” leveraging Warwick’s existing retail market and prime location at the intersection of Interstates 95 and 295 to become “the destination for outlet shopping in the southern New England market.”

The redeveloped Rhode Island Mall would be the state’s first outlet center, the nearest being Wrentham Village in Massachusetts, about a 40 minute drive from Warwick.

A floor plan included in the brochure shows the two-floor space divided into 61 store units ranging in size from 610 square feet to 10,720 square feet. The Kohl’s and Wal-Mart properties, which Winstanley Enterprises and Surrey Equities sold to an unidentified buyer for $33.35 million in December, are shown remaining as anchors of the planned outlet center along with Sears.

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The outlet center vision detailed in the brochure diverges from plans previously announced by Winstanley Enterprises and Surrey Equities. Adam Winstanley, principal of Concord, Mass.-based Winstanley Enterprises, had said the two companies planned to consolidate the small shop spaces into larger units with the expectation of housing only “three to four tenants, max” instead of the 65 tenants that once occupied the mall.

Winstanley Enterprises and New York-based Surrey Equities purchased the Rhode Island Mall from GLL Real Estate Partners in 2012 for $38 million.

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