With just about five months to go until the Merrimack Premium Outlets are scheduled to open, the owners of the development have remained tight-lipped on which retailers would be coming to the open-air shopping center.

However, for those who are excited to get a glimpse at what's to come for the outlets, there's some news.

Fire Chief Michael Currier confirmed Thursday afternoon that 22 building and fit up permits have been approved for retailers seeking to start construction of their stores within the buildings that have been erected at Premium Outlets site. Currier said another 15 have applications have been submitted and are awaiting approval for their permits by the town's building and code division, located at the Merrimack Fire Station.

The 22 stores that have received approval to build make up a total of 143,148 square feet of the 430,000 square feet of retail space that will be available. The outlets, which are designed as a open-air village of shops will also include up to four restaurants, a food court and a 200-room hotel. The shops are expected to open in June 2012.

Currier said most of the remaining shops are unlikely to apply for permits until sometime in February, but some of the already-approved shops have applied early due to their size and the extra build and inspection time they might need. The largest store to be approved thus far is Sak's Fifth Avenue's OFF 5th, which announced at the end of August it would come to Merrimack. The shop has been approved at 28,000 square feet, Currier said.

Nike is the next largest, approved at 13,000 square feet.

"I would expect we'll see the rest of the permit applications coming in in the next couple months," Currier said. "It usually takes a couple of months to build so they apply three or four months out. I think we'll see a number of permits come in sometime in February."

Owned by Simon/Premium Outlets, the retail center when complete will create more than 1,000 jobs according to the OutletsYes.com website. Another 1,100-1,200 jobs were expected during the construction phase of the project.

The website also projects around 5 million shoppers a year.

With 135-retail spaces available, there is still a long way to go, but here are the first 22 to receive their build and fit up permits from the town, arranged by size.

The Merrimack Premium Outlets are located just off of Exit 10 from the Everett Turnpike, off Industrial Drive, across from the Fidelity campus at Spartan Way.