About Silver Sands Factory Stores
The History and Vision Behind Silver Sands Factory Stores
What started as an empty shopping center and a vision held by one man has become the nation's largest designer outlet center.
Silver Sands Factory Stores, located just east of Destin, Fla., offers over 100 factory direct stores and over 465,000 square feet of retail space filled with designer merchandise at up to 75 percent off retail price. The seven million plus visitors a year can shop such distinguished designer stores as Coach Factory, Polo Ralph Lauren Factory Store, Banana Republic Factory Store, Ann Taylor Factory Store, Sony, Brooks Brothers Factory Store, Bose, Tommy Hilfiger, Nike and Reebok - just to name a few. This impressive collection of true designer names makes Silver Sands a popular and favorite shopping destination.
To date, five phases have been developed, which is a far cry from where visionary developer Keith Howard began. What he saw well before Silver Sands' 1992 opening was the potential to capture an exploding market of vacationers and permanent residents along Florida's soon-to-be-discovered Gulf Coast near Destin.
Howard took approximately three years to study the feasibility of a designer factory store center being built in an area that had a small population base, but a large and growing tourist market. At first, few saw the validity of Howard's notion, and he literally went "door to door" with major designers to convince them the vision was true. Little by little, though, they came on board, each reaping the profits of the idea that Howard saw so clearly.
Milestones:
August 1992: Silver Sands Factory Stores opens with 25 stores occupying its first phase of 84,000
square feet. New stores included Dansk, Donna Karan, Nautica and Jones New York.
July 1994: Phase II includes 17 new stores, increasing the number of stores to 42 and adding 48,800
feet in square footage. Additions included Calvin Klein, Etienne Aigner, Brooks Brothers
Factory Store and Big Dog. This new phase increased and diversified shopping options
for the recorded two million locals and tourists who shopped at Silver Sands during 1994.
March 1995: Within one year, the third phase of Silver Sands was completed with 21 new stores and
73,564 additional square feet. Kenneth Cole, Ellen Tracy, GAP, Greg Norman Golf,
Bally and Lenox were some of the stores celebrating at the Grand Opening. With a new
total of 63 stores, Silver Sands had established itself as a "Shopping Holiday" on the
Gulf Coast. Within 1995, the numbers of visitors increased to three million.
June 1996: Phase IV, the largest phase to open in the center with 46 stores, launched shortly after
Hurricane Opal impacted the Gulf Coast. Along with Coach, Bose, GH Bass, Hartmann
and Dooney and Bourke opened Morgan's Family Entertainment, a 50,000 square-foot
dining, family entertainment and arcade complex. This phase set Silver Sands ahead of all
other shopping centers way beyond Northwest Florida's Gulf Coast and in the Southeast
with a total of 111 stores and 380,000 square-feet of designer outlet shopping, dining and
entertainment.
May 1999: Memorial Day weekend was the Grand Opening of Phase V, with the addition of Black and
Decker, Mikasa, Nike, GNC and Johnson Murphy Shoes, as some of the 13 new stores.
With this opening, Silver Sands became the largest designer outlet center in the nation and
ranked #18 with Outlet Retail Merchant's Association (ORMA).
Summer 2001: Silver Sands saw a record number of visitors and moved up in the ORMA ranking to
#13 of 278 outlet centers.
May 2004: Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH opens a 30,000 square-foot store to anchor the Center's new
Fashion Court area.
May 2006: Shopper Services opens in the median in front of Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH as a central
location for shoppers to obtain Center and area information, gift cards, stroller rentals and
much more.
January 2008: More than 17 million tourists visit the Emerald Coast region in 2007. The number of
Silver Sands shoppers steadily increases to seven million.
November 2008: Silver Sands becomes the first shopping center in Northwest Florida to open at
midnight on Black Friday with over 60,000 shoppers in attendance.
August 2009: Silver Sands receives top honors at the regional and state Image Awards ceremony of
the Florida Public Relations Association for its inaugural Midnight Madness event.
The commitment of acquiring the nation's most desirable designer stores has always been, and remains true today, the key to Silver Sands' success. 2009 was one of the most active years for Silver Sands with several renovations, expansions and new store openings. In May 2009, the first Restoration Hardware Clearance Center in the Southeast opened as well as Northwest Florida's first Gymboree Outlet. The sparkling new Swarovski store opened in June 2009. Fall openings included Journeys, Talbots, Lacoste and San Antonio Shoes (SAS). Throughout 2009, several Silver Sands stores completed multi-million dollar renovations, including J. Crew, Rack Room Shoes, Reebok, Rockport, Cole-Haan, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, Johnston & Murphy Factory Store and Liz Claiborne New York. Two exciting expansions also occurred in 2009 as Coach moved into a space triple its previous size and Michael Kors relocated to a space twice its previous size.
Silver Sands contributes to the local economy by providing jobs for over 3,000 employees and by attracting over seven million shoppers a year, boosting the local tax base. However, the Center's community involvement best demonstrates Silver Sands' commitment to the area. Silver Sands supports community businesses that foster growth and progress in local schools and churches, Business and Tourist Development, non-profit civic organizations and charities and the Arts. The sampling of Silver Sands' commitment to the community shows why Howard's success is no accident. He takes community involvement just as seriously as he takes his projects, and the entire Gulf Coast benefits from his generosity and vision.
A leader in emerging retail trends and mixed-use Town Centers, Howard Group continues to set the industry bar for exceptional real estate developments on Northwest Florida's Gulf Coast. In all of Howard's development projects, ranging from upscale residential communities to commercial parks and retail ventures, he sees that aesthetics and community appeal are maintained. This is particularly noticeable at Silver Sands Factory Stores, which offers a particularly inviting shopping atmosphere with the conveniences of abundant parking and covered walkways that allow shoppers to leisurely tour the center. For more information on Howard Group, visit www.howardgrp.com or call 850-837-1886.
Silver Sands is conveniently located eight miles east of Destin on Emerald Coast Parkway, one mile west of Sandestin® Golf and Beach Resort. For more information, call Shopper Services at 850-654-9771.
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