CLARKSBURG, MD-If all goes well for Simon Property, it will be building a new outlet center in this submarket. The REIT and Bethesda, MD-based Streetscape Partners recently unveiled plans for a nearly 450,000-square-foot Clarksburg Premium Outlets at Cabin Branch. The companies have reportedly signed a contract with Adventist HealthCare to purchase 47 acres of land south of Clarksburg Road for the project.

If all goes well for Tanger Factory Outlet Centers and Peterson Cos., the companies will be building a new outlet center in this submarket. Last month the duo announced plans to develop an upscale outlet center here that will be co-owned by both companies and branded as Tanger Outlets. The parcel they have in mind is located 27 miles northwest of Washington, D.C. and 36 miles west of Baltimore at the interchange of I-270 & Stringtown Road.

Outlet centers are one of the few outright booming sectors of retail. According to trade publication Value Retail News, last year outlet centers generated $25.4 billion in sales, up $3 billion from 2011. Some ten centers have opened in the last 24 months – and there are another 43 in the pipeline. Make that, now, a potential 45.

Chances are, though, that one of these plans will not come to fruition. For starters, local residents have to be won over and at the moment people are voicing objections to elements in both plans, as The Gazette recently reported.

Another possible scenario is that the two competing developers will join forces at the end. That is what happened in last year in Charlotte, NC, when Simon and Tanger announced they would team up to develop the 350,000-square foot retail outlet in the Steele Creek area. Prior to that announcement, the REITs had been pursuing separate projects in the same general area.

The REITs are also partnering to develop an outlet in Columbus, Ohio as well. They also partnered to build Tanger Outlets in Texas City, TX, which opened in 2012. Simon and Tanger were unable to respond to GlobeSt.com in time for publication.