Stephen Yalof, president and CEO of Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, Inc. (NYSE: SKT), participated in a video interview in conjunction with Nareit’s REITworld: 2021 Annual Conference.
Yalof discussed how Tanger connected with its communities throughout the pandemic, including using properties for blood drives and food collection sites, and as staging areas for law enforcement and emergency medical services. He said that the idea of community is embedded in the REIT’s mission vision value statement and that it extended to hosting voter registration drives during the pandemic with an organization called HeadCount.
“HeadCount uses open air venues like concerts and festivals to get younger people to register to vote,” Yalof said. “In 2020, because most of those venues were closed...through our community efforts and outreach, we worked with HeadCount to stand up voter registration in our centers as well.”
Yalof also discussed Tanger’s website and app, which offer advice and tips to shoppers on topics like fashion, beauty, and home, noting that the virtual experience has become even more important to customers.
“Even pre-COVID, we found that a lot of our shoppers like to do their window shopping online, but actually go in and do their buying in-store,” he said.
Yalof also discussed Tanger’s strong results for Q3 2021, noting that a short-term leasing initiative the REIT’s general managers drove during the pandemic has helped push occupancy above 94%.