By JOSEPH S. PETE, Daily Journal of Johnson County Staff Writer
Although the opening of a Cabela's outdoor retail megastore has been delayed, hotels will continue to be built this year near Interstate 65 on Greenwood's east side.
A developer expects only a delay in his plan to bring a movie theater, an entertainment complex like a Jillian's and as many as 14 restaurants near Cabela's, which has been put on indefinite hold after the company slowed its national expansion plans.
Four planned hotels still are on track because they'll serve travelers, not just Cabela's shoppers.
People shouldn't expect a repeat of when Super Target moved from a proposed County Line Road location to the Southport exit after a development deal fell through, city planners said. Only one of the five proposed hotel projects depended on Cabela's for business.
Restaurants, retail stores and other development won't come until after the area is anchored by Cabela's, developer John Lopp said.
Splash Universe had planned to build a 164-room hotel with an indoor water park on the 102-acre Cabela's site, just south of County Line Road between I-65 and Graham Road.
Officials with Focus Hospitality Services LLC, which owns the Splash Universe brand, didn't return messages left at its Valparaiso and Sarasota, Fla. offices.
Water park representatives haven't had any contact with city officials for about five months, senior planner Bill Peeples said. The city had asked Splash Universe to resubmit its request for a height variance, but company officials never returned the paperwork.
"They didn't seem to be pursuing their project very aggressively," Peeples said.
By contrast, Cabela's representatives met with Greenwood and Indianapolis planners a few weeks ago to discuss the condition of roads in the area and other matters.
The Nebraska-based chain is delaying new stores nationwide because of the souring economy, indefinitely putting off plans in Greenwood and several other states.
Many retailers, including Starbucks, are scaling back expansion plans, Cabela's spokesman John Castillo said.
No Cabela's will open in Greenwood in the next two years while the company focuses on making its current stores more profitable, he said.
None of the other hotels in the area has indicated any change of plans. Most of the new hotels are more interested in business from interstate travelers than from tourists visiting the outdoor retailer, Greenwood planning director Ed Ferguson said.
Construction has started on an 83-room Candlewood Suites extended-stay hotel across from the Cabela's site. This spring, a five-story Hilton Garden Inn will go up on the northwest quadrant of the County Line Road interchange, on the Indianapolis side.
A proposed five-story 72-room La Quinta Inn at the Main Street exit and a Value Place extended-stay hotel are both slated to be built this year.
Value Place, which will open a 121-room hotel on the southwest corner of the County Line Road interchange, offers rooms only by the week and caters to a different market from Cabela's visitors, said spokeswoman Jennifer Kramp.
The Kansas-based chain, which plans to build 600 new hotels around the country over the next five years, bills itself as a home away from home for business travelers. Value Place liked the area to put up a motel aimed at small-business travelers, people requiring extended medical treatment and relocating families, among others, Kramp said.
Plans for both the Candlewood Suites and the Hilton Garden Inn predated the Cabela's announcement.
Still, developer Janeen Sprague, who is bringing the Hilton to the southside, said she's a little nervous that the outdoor retailer has no timetable for developing a store.
"I wouldn't open a hotel that relied on one business," she said. "It's still a great place to be. The news makes me a little less secure, though."
Construction of the Hilton, which will target both business and leisure travelers, should take 11 to 12 months, she said.
Sprague, who owns Columbus-based J Enterprises Inc., developed the Holiday Inn Express on Emerson Avenue, which sat alone in the area for years after the County Line Road interchange was built.
Hilton won't face a situation like that because the area is far more built out, and many travelers would like an upscale hotel option on the southside, Sprague said.
The Cabela's announcement is only a setback in how fast the area develops, Lopp said.
Lopp, owner of the Louisville-area Lopp Properties, recently signed a multimillion-dollar deal to develop the 54 available acres on the Cabela's site.
He's drafted plans for two hotels, a small movie theater and an entertainment complex similar to a Jillian's. About 14 or 15 lots will be sold or leased to restaurants, which will be a mix of fast-food and sit-down casual dining, he said.
Lopp Properties, which also is working with Cabela's on its Hammond location in northwest Indiana, has tentative agreements with about half the tenants it would need to fill out the site, he said. He expects the property would develop about two years after Cabela's opens.
Cabela's will expand by four stores over the next two years while it works to make its existing stores more profitable, Castillo said. The Nebraska-based retailer will cut its advertising budget and streamline its supply chain at a time when consumers have less money to spend.
Castillo said he wasn't privy to why executives decided to open stores in South Dakota, Maine, Montana and New Jersey while putting off openings in several other markets, including Greenwood.
In the case of Maine, the store's construction was nearly complete, he said.
Though more potential customers live near Greenwood than at the South Dakota or Montana stores, Castillo said population wasn't the only consideration. Denver also has a large market of potential customers, but that store's opening also has been delayed.
Cabela's can't predict the economy and know when it will look at expanding at a faster pace, Castillo said.
The decision to slow expansion had nothing to do with the Greenwood market, he said. When the company re-evaluates its expansion plans, it will still consider the Greenwood site, he said.
"Nothing has happened with that land for 140 years," Peeples said. "We can wait another two or three years."