The figure is based on infrared counters stationed at each of the mall’s entrances.

Soporowski estimates that the mega-shopping mall will sell $300 million worth of clothes and other goods in its first year and will generate some $18 to $20 million in property, sales and other taxes. Last weekend, 24 tour buses visited, and 10 more are scheduled to come this Saturday.

Alabama Grill, a 450-seat, country-music-themed restaurant featuring live bands, opens today with the band Alabama present at 4 p.m.

“Basically, I think for the first month of business, we’ve accomplished what we wanted to do,” Soporowski told a crowd of business leaders.

Concord Mills, a 1.4 million-square-foot mega-mall at Interstate 85’s exit 49, opened Sept. 17. Its racetrack-shaped center houses 200 manufacturers’ outlets, retail outlets, entertainment venues and restaurants and the largest movie theater in North Carolina.

Development has exploded at an interchange that didn’t even exist five years ago.

“Concord Mills and the Mills Corp. notoriously affect business on land around the site,” Soporowski said. “This time next year, it will take a totally different look.”

The center’s owners, The Mills Corp., Simon Property Group and Kan AM, are now developing other property in front of and around Concord Mills, including a 300,000-square-foot shopping center across I-85 and a 250-room Embassy Suites hotel set to open in early 2001. Thirteen outparcels in front of Concord Mills have been sold to such chains as T.G.I. Friday, Rio Bravo, Steak and Shake and First Citizens Bank. Work should begin on a 300-unit apartment complex featuring courtyards and garages.