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Ken Stone, an economics professor at Iowa State University, said he thought the United States was "over stored," or had more retail stores than consumers could support.

"Any new ones take sales from existing businesses," he said Tuesday.

Regency Land Services and the High Development Corp. of Cedar Rapids have proposed a 200-acre, $200 million commercial and residential development in Tiffin near Interstate 80 that includes plans for an outlet mall, hotel, water park, restaurants, condos, offices and park space.

Jim Angstman, vice president of Regency Land Services and the High Development Corp., said the proposed outlet mall would be similar in size to Tanger Outlet Center in Williamsburg, which is about 20 miles away. The new outlet mall also would be about four miles away from Coral Ridge Mall, which opened in Coralville in July 1998.

Theresa Phillips, general manager of Tanger Outlet Center, said she wasn't aware of the plans for a new outlet mall and declined to comment on how it might affect her center.

Tanger opened in 1991 and sees more than 1 million visitors a year, she said. There are more than 55 stores at Tanger Outlet Center, including Nike, Gap, Coach, Nautica and Old Navy.

Stone said it would be hard for a new outlet mall to compete with Tanger.

"It's pretty big and well established, so it's going to be hard to draw people away from it unless it's another outlet mall of the same caliber," he said. "It will be interesting to see if the new one is big enough to make it, or just big enough to be a thorn in the side of Tanger."

Angstman said his companies don't see the proposed new outlet mall as taking shoppers away from the other two facilities.

"We're not trying to cannibalize anything -- there's room to grow here," he said, noting that the plan is to draw retailers that don't already have a presence in Eastern Iowa.

Angstman said his companies want to put the development close to other attractions, including a planned rain forest in Coralville and a planned casino in Riverside as well as Coral Ridge Mall, which is home to 120 stores and draws more than 10 million visitors each year, according to the mall.

"There's a synergy in Eastern Iowa," Angstman said. "This area is becoming a destination and that's what retailers look for."

Monica Nadeau, general manager at Coral Ridge Mall, agrees She said she thinks there's plenty of room in the area for another mall.

"I think any development in this area is just going to make this whole area a regional draw," she said. "It's just one more opportunity for people to pull off Interstate 80."