GE Real Estate Creates Strategic Capital Group

Provides $160mm in Preferred Equity for Retail Portfolio Acquisition

STAMFORD, CT – GE Real Estate (GERE), a leading global resource for commercial real estate capital, today announced that its North America Debt business has created the Strategic Capital Group (SCG) to provide structured loan financing to new and existing institutional customers. The group will be based in New York, NY. Skip Wells, has been named SCG managing director.

“Our new Strategic Capital Group will give us even greater flexibility to focus on sizable transactions of $75 million or more and on larger pools of existing mortgages,” said Dan Smith, GE Real Estate’s Senior Vice President of North America Debt. “Our team has the depth and knowledge to work effectively with opportunity funds, REITs and other national borrowers as they pursue large, complex portfolio acquisitions.”

SCG recently completed its first transaction, investing $160 million of preferred equity in a partnership formed by affiliates of Blackstone Real Estate Advisors, Tanger Factory Outlets, Inc. and COP Holdings to acquire a portfolio of nine geographically dispersed outlet center retail assets from Charter Oak Partners. Tanger will handle the day-to-day leasing and management responsibilities for the acquired assets.

“This is exactly the kind of complex transaction this group was created to support,” said Skip Wells.. “Our team worked closely with Blackstone to structure a unique transaction that allowed the partnership to acquire the portfolio on an opportunistic basis notwithstanding the low leverage ratio caused by the securitized senior debt facility that was already in place.”

“GE really came through for us on Charter Oak. Their ability to successfully execute a complicated transaction under an extremely tight timetable was invaluable.” said Jonathan Gray, Senior Managing Director of Blackstone.

“We are delighted that GE has made a substantial investment in this portfolio of factory outlet shopping centers, which will be managed by our Company. We look forward to a long-term relationship with GE and Blackstone,” stated Stanley K. Tanger, Founder, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Tanger.

About GE Real Estate

GE Real Estate (www.gerealestate.com), a business unit of GE Commercial Finance, is one of the world’s leading resources for commercial real estate capital. Headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, GE Real Estate has assets of nearly $28 billion and more than 30 offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia.

GE Commercial Finance, with approximately $200 billion in assets, provides a broad range of financing products and services to businesses of all sizes throughout the world. GE is a AAA-rated, diversified services, technology and manufacturing company, with operations worldwide.

About The Blackstone Group

The Blackstone Group, a private investment bank with offices in New York, London and Hamburg, was founded in 1985. Blackstone Real Estate Advisors has raised four funds representing approximately $4 billion in total equity. The group has made over 100 separate investments in hotels, offices and other commercial properties with a total transaction value in excess of $15 billion. In addition to real estate, The Blackstone Group’s core businesses include Private Equity Investing, Corporate Debt Investing, Marketable Alternative Asset Management, Mergers & Acquisitions Advisory, and Restructuring & Reorganization Advisory.

About Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, Inc.

Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, Inc. (NYSE:SKT) is a self-administered, self-managed real estate investment trust that focuses exclusively on developing, acquiring, owning and managing upscale outlet shopping centers. Each center is branded as a Tanger Outlet Center. The Company, founded in 1981 by Stanley K. Tanger, presently operates 40 centers in 23 states coast to coast, totaling approximately 9.3 million square feet of gross leasable area. Tenants in Tanger Outlet Centers are comprised primarily of large national brand-name manufacturers who sell their products directly to the consumer at substantial savings. For more information on Tanger, visit our web site at www.tangeroutlet.com.