ROBSTOWN, TEXAS — The Nike Factory Store at the Outlets at Corpus Christi Bay in Robstown will close today as part of the company's growth plan.
The outlet mall that opened in 2017 never seemed to take off. Now with Nike leaving, the future of the shopping complex is unknown.
The city of Robstown is trying to do whatever it takes to bring businesses and jobs to the community.
There has been some uncertainty about the outlet mall off Highway 77since the foreclosure auction in February.
That is when Real Estate Holdings LLC, an Oklahoma liability company, purchased the property with a $42 million bid. Now they are losing one of their biggest stores, Nike.
“It is sad that we are losing Nike, being such a large store, but we do have other prospects,” said Robstown Area Development Executive Director Elva Lopez.
“Talking to the property owners and the management company is that they are open to other areas of business coming in there for development, whether its educational or it is going
to be medical or anything like that. That is good news for us because it does not have to be retail,” said Robstown Mayor Gilbert Gomez.
Robstown Mayor Gilbert Gomez says the the 50-acre shopping complex is a privately-owned property, but says the city is working to come up with some incentives that would be able to
generate interest in the mall.
“The picture is that we need that one solid store to come in or it may not even be retail, it could be a restaurant, it could be educational, there are many avenues. We just need to use
our centers of influence and try to get that connection going,” said Lopez.
The Nike store has been a staple of the 330,000-square-foot shopping center which will now boast only a handful of tenants.
“That is the world we live in now with technology. A lot of people like to shop online and, of course, that means less business for the actual storefronts that are here. We have stores
closing all over the area here and that is going to continue to happen; it is just the way people do business now. So we have to embrace it and move forward and say okay what do we
need to do to move into another area that we need to. That is the good thing about the property owners, they are open to all those avenues,” said Gomez.
There is no telling how much of a blow losing the Nike store will be for the outlet mall. But locals still believe the outlets could be successful with some changes.
“There are a number of reasons why businesses close, but the main reason is, if they are making money, they are not going to be closing; they are going to continue to operate.
I say we are better off today than we were in the past. Now, of course, we have a facility, and we just need a good team to operate the outlet malls,” said former Nueces County
Commissioner Oscar Ortiz.
