Clarification: The proposed Ikea at Century Farms would have been the second Ikea location in Tennessee. A Memphis store opened in 2016.

The real-estate arm of Tanger Outlets mall recently acquired part of the 300-acre Century Farms development in Antioch, county records show.

The popular discount mall could open its first Nashville-area location as early as late 2019 or early 2020, if plans are solidified.

It would be the second Tennessee location, with an existing mall in Sevierville that has shops including Banana Republic, Fossil, Gap, Levi's, Swarovski, OshKosh B'gosh, Michael Kors, Hot Topic and Zales.

Tanger Outlets officials declined to confirm the deal, however.

"Our development team at Tanger Outlets evaluates new markets on an ongoing basis," spokesman Quentin Pell said in an email. "Tanger has nothing to announce for the Nashville market at this time; we will issue a formal press release announcing any plans, should they develop."

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The land acquisition agreement between Century Farms' developer Oldacre McDonald and Tanger's real-estate entity, Cornwallis Acquisition Co., was filed with the Davidson County Register of Deeds last month.

Developer Mark McDonald declined to comment about the outlet mall. But he said he is working to bring several retailers, restaurants and office tenants to the development.

"We're really excited about the scope of this project," he said. "We have significant interest on a number of fronts."

Roadwork improvements underway to open up access to portions of the previously undeveloped site will take about another year and a half. Century Farms is directly off the Hickory Hollow Parkway exit of Interstate 24.

In May, Ikea canceled the highly anticipated opening of its first Nashville location at the site.

The low-cost Swedish furniture retailer is pivoting away from multi-level warehouse-style retail locations, to smaller stores closer in urban cores with improved online shopping options.

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Shifting shopping trends

Tanger Outlets would compete with Opry Mills mall, which offers many of the same retailers about 15 miles away.

But Antioch is one of Nashville's fastest-growing neighborhoods and some residents said they would frequent the outlet mall.

"I would shop both" Opry Mills and Tanger Outlets, said Reen Moyers. "I'm not a big online shopper, so more retail options close to home would be perfect for me."

Many brick-and-mortar retail shops are struggling to survive in the digital era. For example, Sears Holdings announced what has become a seemingly routine round of store closures on Monday.

But PricewaterhouseCoopers' Global Consumer Insights Survey 2018 found that physical stores are still popular.

"By 2014, only 36 percent of respondents said they shopped at bricks-and-mortar (stores) at least weekly," the report states. "But since then we have seen increases in weekly bricks-and-mortar shoppers, from 40 percent in 2015 up to 44 pecent in this year’s survey. They’re seeing shopping increasingly as a sensory and social experience."

Century Farms already has already inked deals with office tenants Asurion, Bridgestone Americas, TriStar Medical Group, Community Health Systems and car-parts maker LKQ.

"I can almost guarantee if this comes to fruition that I'll choose them exclusively over Opry Mills and Cool Springs," said resident Carmnita Shannon. "Anything that they don't have, I'll just order online."

Sandy Mazza can be reached via email at smazza@tennessean.com, by calling 615-726-5962, or on Twitter @SandyMazza.