BY JOYCE RUSSELL, Times of Northwest Indiana
joycer@nwitimes.com
PORTAGE | Bass Pro Shops is more than a month away from turning a shovel of dirt for its mega-sporting goods store here, but already other national developers are being lured to the city.
Cracker Barrel and LongHorn Steakhouse restaurants have been the first two spinoff developers to follow the Springfield, Mo.-based retailer's lead and sign on to construct facilities at AmeriPlex at the Port business park, said Tim Healy, senior vice president of Holladay Properties, which owns the park.
"The increase in interest has been phenomenal," Healy said of the past few months since Bass Pro announced it would locate at the park at Interstate 94 and Ind. 249.
LongHorn Steakhouse, whose closest restaurants are in Indianapolis or Norridge, Ill., will break ground and open this year, said Healy, adding Cracker Barrel would like to do so as well.
Healy said he's had "significant discussion" with a theater group and has had inquiries from other hotels and restaurants about locating in the approximately 90 acres of commercially zoned land within the 380-acre business park.
"We are going to focus on uses that are compatible with Bass Pro," said Healy.
It's not unexpected. When the city agreed to issue $17.5 million in revenue bonds and approved a tax abatement in the deal to bring Bass Pro Shops to Portage, Mayor Doug Olson said he projected $115 million in spinoff development as a result over the next five years.
City officials are planning to accept overflow development once AmeriPlex is filled. They are beginning plans to develop 150 acres across Ind. 249 from AmeriPlex for their own business park and recently received a $2.5 million grant from the Indiana Economic Development Corp. to fund infrastructure on the property.
Olson said the city will work to bring in other specialty-type retail development to the area on the city's north side.
"We are looking for hotels, restaurants and other destination retail, for which we will be selective. We're looking for things that normally wouldn't come to the community without the draw of Bass Pro," said Olson, adding the development will be in line with the city's Northside Development Plan approved last year. The idea, he said, would be to locate retail/commercial development near Bass Pro that would not have a competitive affect on retail/commercial development along U.S. 6.
Bass Pro a Pied Piper?
The stream of development that might be flowing into Portage isn't unusual.
Other communities throughout the nation that are home to Bass Pro Shops have experienced the same wave of development.
"When other developers see Bass Pro has made the decision, they know they've done the due diligence and hop on board," said Jim Twombly, city manager in Broken Arrow, Okla., where Bass Pro opened a 130,000-square-foot destination store last October.
Since Bass Pro announced it was building a store in Broken Arrow, Twombly said a 120-room Holiday Inn, Steak 'N Shake, a local chain Mexican restaurant, a local chain barbecue restaurant, Lone Star Steakhouse and a local bank have either begun construction or applied for building permits. The group that developed the Holiday Inn also plans on building a Marriott hotel, he said. The city also plans to build a conference center and is looking for another hotel developer to build a hotel and operate the conference center.
About one-quarter mile away a 30-acre commercial development is already 90 percent sold out with a department store, Pier 1 Imports, PetSmart and other national retailers.
Twombly is estimating his city, a suburb of Tulsa with some 90,000 residents, will see $150 million in development within the next 10 years directly related to Bass Pro Shops' decision to locate there.
Bass Pro Shops opened a store in Auburn, N.Y. -- the Finger Lakes region of that state -- in June 2004.
"Bass Pro went into an older mall that was being cannibalized by other development," said Mayor Timothy Lattimore. "That mall is now stabilized and has attracted national chains."
Lattimore said the city has seen an additional $50 million in development in the area, including a hotel and four "big box" stores, with more to come.
"They are a force. Having Bass Pro has stabilized (the area) for us. Instead of just the local guy, national developers have taken notice," said Lattimore.
The same thing happened in Clarksville, Ind., across from Louisville, Ky., where Bass Pro opened last November, said John Minta, the town's council president.
Minta said Bass Pro went into a mall that would have "otherwise gone under."
"We've had major development down there now. It has boomed," he said. "It has become a destination place. People are coming from miles and miles away."
Just a step ahead of Portage, Bass Pro Shops recently began construction on a 132,000-square-foot store in Olathe, Kan., 20 miles south of Kansas City.
"Just in the announcement and the hype, it spawned a lot of extracurricular activity," said Sara Misemer, business retention and expansion manager for the Olathe Chamber of Commerce. "They have sparked interest in hotels coming to the area."
Much like Portage and Porter County, Olathe is looking at the increased retail, hotel and restaurant development to attract tourists to spend the night in their community, contributing retail sales taxes as additional revenue for the community.