Outlets at the Border brings some firsts

View the photo gallery: Outlets at the Border

A new outlet mall opening Thursday at the world's busiest border crossing aims to serve as a "front door" for the 100 million vehicles and pedestrians traveling between San Diego and Tijuana every year.

The Outlets at the Border, which boasts San Diego's largest flagship H&M store to date, was designed to connect with the new pedestrian border crossing slated to open at San Ysidro in March 2016, and the neighboring Las Americas Premium Outlets. A new transit hub for the land port-of-entry will sit in the new mall's parking lot.

At 140,000 square feet, it is much smaller than Las Americas' 560,000 square feet and 125 stores, but flows seamlessly into the contiguous mall and the Plaza at the Border shopping center on the opposite side. Outlets at the Border developer the Shamrock Group opened Plaza at the Border in 2012 to complement the new mall. Simon Property Group runs Las Americas, between the two smaller centers.

Shamrock's mall offers a whole new menu of branded outlet and value stores like Justice, Cache, Sunglass Warehouse, Volcom and Icing by Claire's, that will complement the existing outlet offerings in the area.

Because the border location presents such an unusual opportunity, Shamrock Group founder Michael Binkle said he wanted to do something special with it.

First, he wanted to create a meeting place, but he also wanted to serve up stores and amenities that are a combination of quintessentially San Diego and one-of-a-kind for the area.

Rack Room Shoes and women's fast-fashion chain A'Gaci are making their San Diego debuts at Outlets at the Border, which is also home to headphone maker Skullcandy's very first factory store. Encinitas watchmaker Nixon is opening its first outlet store there, and H&M is opening its San Diego flagship.

"We tried to get new tenants that weren't already here," Binkle explained. "We were looking for local and unique."

The idea, he said, is to give visitors a pleasant and lasting first impression. It was also important to design a comfortable space for travelers to hang out. The mall offers complimentary Wi-Fi, for example, along with a customer service lounge featuring refreshments, leather club chairs, a big-screen TV and a free charging station for electronics.

Awbrey Cook McGill Architects, the original designer of Las Americas, used imported finishes and tropical graphic themes to help create the feeling of a modern resort-style village in the tropics.

Palm trees and fabric canopies across the outdoor corridors create shade for the soft seating throughout the mall. And despite its relatively modest footprint, the design makes the center feel spacious. Sculptures, water walls, graphics and other artistic elements scattered through the center create what Binkle called social media-friendly photo opportunities.

He did not share the cost of construction, but said his firm spared no expense in the mission to create a "wow" factor.

Retailers, whose spaces look more like department store showrooms than minimalist shops for selling off excess inventory, followed suit.

"When we went to this level of extravagance, so did the tenants," said Binkle.

Dining options at the mall entrance include food court standbys Panda Express, Auntie Anne's and Cinnabon, along with Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. But even those will have an upscale look, he said.

There were 201 outlet centers in North America as of March this year, according to the annual Outlet Centers Report by Value Retail News, with 11 more scheduled to open by the end of the year and an additional 55 in the pipeline through 2016. The average outlet-center age is 18 years, and the industry boasts $42 billion in annual sales.

Not all of the Outlets at the Border stores open Thursday, but most will be in business before the holiday shopping season kicks off.

Retailers that will be open on Thursday: H&M, A'Gaci, Scent, Skullcandy, Volcom, Rack Room Shoes, Auntie Anne's, Cinnabon, Carvel, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Panda Express, Armani Exchange, Cache, Asics, Shoe Lounge, O'Neill, Nixon, Sunglass Warehouse, Justice, Hartstrings, Wilsons, Gold Toe, Icing by Claire's and Ghirardelli.