Mashantucket — Ladies and gentlemen, start your shopping. Don’t stop till you drop.

That was the message Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and other speakers delivered here Wednesday evening at a reception arranged in connection with today’s official opening of the $125 million Tanger Outlets at Foxwoods, the 80-store mall linking Foxwoods Resort Casino’s Grand Pequot and Fox towers.

Invited guests got to sample the offerings Wednesday night. Everyone’s welcome at 10 a.m. Thursday.

“I couldn’t be happier for our state to have this cutting-edge operation open for Memorial Day Weekend,” the governor said, standing on a platform erected in the mall’s corridor. “It really speaks volumes about the vibrancy and strength of our economy and how we’re coming back.”

He congratulated the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, Foxwoods’ owners, who partnered on the project with the mall developers, Tanger Factory Outlet Centers of Greensboro, N.C., and Gordon Group Holdings of Greenwich. Tanger will own and operate the mall, leasing the site from the Mashantuckets.

Steven Tanger, president and chief executive officer of Tanger Factory Outlets, called Foxwoods “an ideal location” for the first enclosed shopping center in a resort casino. “This is where high fashion and high rollers meet,” he said. "I hope they spend lots of money here."

Rodney Butler, the Mashantucket tribal chairman, said the “pioneering” venture was the first of its kind in Indian Country. “We had to get federal laws changed to accomplish it,” he said.

Power sanders and drills were still being brandished in the minutes before the governor’s arrival.

“This is a big project,” Felix Rappaport, Foxwoods’ president and CEO, said. “At 300,000 square feet, it’s pretty daunting. I’ve opened five pretty projects at casinos, but never a shopping mall. Never anything like this.”

Today's ribbon-cutting ceremony is to be hosted by Drew and Jonathan Scott of "Property Brothers," the reality TV show. The festivities are scheduled to continue Friday when high-wire artist Nik Wallenda is to walk a tightrope stretched between the fifth level of Foxwoods' Rainmaker Garage and the rooftop of the new mall.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com

Twitter: @bjhallenbeck