Perhaps Bass Pro megastores are the downtown aquariums of this decade.
Once again, cities can’t seem to stop the unrelenting chase for a magic bullet, a quick fix, a simple solution to revitalizing downtowns. It was the attitude that gave birth to a handful of successful aquariums which in turn inspired dozens of other aquariums long after it was clear that the track record of aquariums was spotty and the market was long since saturated.
Now, downtowns like ours now bait the hook for the latest in economic development – fishing megastores like Pro Bass Shops and Cabela’s, the #1 and #2 hottest stores in a retailing sector whose sales exceeds $75 billion a year.
Of course, here, the chase for the latest in downtown redevelopment has special irony. That’s because it’s this decade’s answer to dealing with the last decade’s answer, The Pyramid.
Of course, we’ve suggested that the best course of action would be to level The Pyramid and use the land as new festival grounds stretching from the visitor’s center to Auction Street.
Instead, we chase a future as a pilgrimage site for the outdoorsmen among us, joining cities like Buffalo, New York; Broken Arrow, Oklahoma; and Buda, Texas, which are giving away millions in public money to consummate deals to bring megastores to their cities. Here, negotiations for Pro Bass Shop to become the headliner tenant for The Pyramid have entered a pivotal stage.
In Buffalo, the “incentives package” for Bass Pro Shop is estimated to cost government about $70 million. Faced with a sweeping urban redevelopment plan for the Buffalo Inner and Outer Harbor, city and state officials turned to the retailer as the centerpiece for its big plans.
The financing package in Buffalo even included one of those notorious hard earmarks targeted for extinction as part of the ethics reform campaign in Washington, D.C. — $34 million in federal funds to pay for projects that will “enhance” the Pro Bass megastore.
The Buffalo plans may sound familiar. The city had a large, abandoned building on its waterfront – the Memorial Auditorium – and it had grand plans for it reuse to anchor a key part of downtown redevelopment. Of course, there were promises of tens of millions of dollars in economic impact, thousands of new jobs, hundreds of thousands of tourists and, well, you get the all too familiar picture.
To give you an idea of how out of control the political rhetoric became, New York Governor George Pataki not only delivered up about $20 million in state funding for the Buffalo project, but called it a key accomplishment of his administration.
Pro Bass Shop has said it is investing $66 million in the Buffalo project, whose 250,000 square feet makes it the third largest megastore in the chain. It’s unclear how much space the retailer plans to use in The Pyramid, but there is roughly 350,000 square feet on the main floor, the two levels on the north and south sides of the building and 10,000 square feet at the apex.
Not to be outdone, Cabela’s is demanding government concessions before it agrees to build its megastores. For a 185,000 square foot store between Austin and San Antonio, the company negotiated $40 million in bonds from tiny Buda, Texas, whose annual budget is $4.5 million. As Cabela’s has done in other cities, it then bought the debt in exchange for a sales tax exemption. Meanwhile, the chain got a $600,000 enterprise grant and about $20 million in highway improvements from Texas state government.
The fishing retailers say each megastore attracts millions of visitors, and Cabela’s claims the Buda store is a magnet for four million customers. Opponents assail the incentives as corporate welfare gone amok and question why government is a willing partners with a retail company. A Cabela’s official – in a moment of candor – said that the company does best in wringing concessions out of smaller cities because they are anxious for answers for their economic growth.
