 Pearl Lands Bass Pro
Outdoors retail superstore called tourist destination
Published June 27, 2003.
Reprinted with permission of The Clarion Ledger.
By Sylvain Metz
smetz@clarionledger.com
After years of trolling the economic waters, the city of Pearl got a strike - and is reeling in a really big one.
BassPro, a nationally recognized retail leader in the sale of hunting, fishing, camping and outdoor equipment, will build a 120,000- to 130,000-square-foot superstore along Riverwind Drive at I-20 and U.S. 49 - a site that last year was being considered for a hockey arena. It will employ 300 workers
.
"It's just phenomenal for the whole state of Mississippi, not just what it brings to Pearl or the whole metro area," Pearl Mayor Jimmy Foster said.
"It's one of the biggest announcements since Nissan," said David L. Parker, executive director for the Pearl Chamber of Commerce.
The store, referred to as the BassPro Shops Outdoor World and set to open in the spring of 2005, is expected to attract somewhere between 2.2 million to 2.5 million visitors annually, according to the developer, Murray D. Wikol, founder and president of Bloomfield Equities LLC of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
Foster said annual sales are projected to be between $40 million and $50 million annually, although the privately owned company won't confirm those figures.
Groundbreaking for the facility, the anchor for a new upscale 150- to 170-acre development known as Bloomfield, will be at noon today.
BassPro will occupy 17 acres, including a stocked 10-acre lake for fishing and boating demonstrations.
"We are very enthusiastic about coming into the Jackson market and Mississippi," said Jim Hagale, president and chief operating officer for BassPro, who noted his twin daughters are students at the University of Mississippi in Oxford.
Indoor amenities, uniquely designed to reflect Mississippi, will include a waterfall, a large aquarium, museum quality trophy fish, a rock climbing wall and a shooting gallery.
Deemed a tourist destination stop, the store not only sells sporting goods but also offers a wide variety of free classes, workshops and demonstrations, designed for sports novices or pros, individuals or entire families.
In addition, this location will sell boats from the company's line. Bass Tracker boats come with motors, trailers and optional marine gear.
Bill Leamond, owner of Bill's Archery Inc., in Pearl, said he's not worried about competition. In fact, Leamond said, he expects to draw business, making repairs that BassPro can't do.
"They don't have the technical knowledge to work in bows," he said, adding that they just sell.
Jimmy Primos, owner of Primos Hunting Calls, a leading vendor for BassPro Shops, said competing businesses have nothing to fear.
"They bring more shoppers into the area," he said.
Pearl officials worked for about three years to land the outdoor giant, Foster said. The company considered other sites in Mississippi, including Tupelo, Vicksburg and the Ross Barnett Reservoir. The search extended into Alabama and Louisiana, Wikol said.
A lot of time and research was spent "looking at historic records" at how natural resources are utilized, he said.
The company also spent three months interviewing conservation and outdoors groups, he said.
Strong points in Pearl's favor were location and traffic count: 265,000 vehicles pass within 1 miles of the site, which includes traffic criss-crossing I-20, I-55 and U.S. 49.
That traffic makes the site ideal for the store's other component. Like other BassPro locations, the store will be event driven depending on the time of the year or the hunting season.
About once every three months, the store will host what it calls a "classic." Depending on the season, vendors come in to show off and demonstrate their latest wares.
Customers will be able to sign up for free giveaways and take part in the fun, Hagale said.
"We are very unique in our ability to draw from a much greater distance than your typical retail (store)," he said.
Wikol said the numbers he's received show hotels will see an additional 155,000 nights a year connected to this one store.
People spend two to four days to tour the store, take part in seminars and workshops, and shop.
"With the new BassPro coming in, it will continue to attract high-quality, high-pay jobs in the retail sector as well as the service sector," Parker said.
The store, which will hire 300 people, has a history of attracting multiple developments, Wikol said.
The store itself will generate spinoffs - restaurants, hotels and small retail shops that will follow. That initial investment is expected to create about 625 full-time jobs and 300 part-time jobs, Foster said. That's a conservative estimate, he said.
The rule of thumb for retail is that retail generally creates four or five auxiliary jobs, said Tom Troxler, executive director of Rankin First, the county's economic development agency. Using that formula, BassPro could create up to 1,500 jobs.
Avid outdoorsman and conservationist John L. Morris , Mo., founded BassPro in Springfield in 1972. According to company literature, he picked up on the need for specialized equipment from fellow anglers frustrated by lack of supplies for their sport.
The Springfield site, the largest of the company's 17 stores, has more than 300,000 square feet of retail space.
Stores are located as far west as Dallas/Fort Worth, as far north as Detroit, as far east as Baltimore and as far south as Islamorada, Fla. The closest stores to the Jackson metro area, though smaller, are in Memphis and Bossier City, La., due to open later this year.
Next month, the company will formally announce a location in Destin, Fla., its second Wild World Sportsman Shop, which will cater largely to saltwater fishermen, Hagale said. And sometime this year, a store location will be announced in Long Beach, Calif.
BassPro also has a Web site that attracts 1.4 million visitors each month, according to company literature.
THE JOHN L. MORRIS FILE
The BassPro Shops chain of retail and catalog stores was founded in 1972 in Springfield, Mo., by avid outdoorsman and conservationist John L. Morris.
Morris has given time and resources to dozens of national, regional and state commissions and associations that promote protection of wildlife and the outdoors, according to company literature.
"We are a very conservation-minded company nationally, regionally and locally," said Larry Whiteley, manager of corporate relations for BassPro and host of its nationally syndicated radio program, Outdoor World Radio.
Each store location works hand-in-hand with local wildlife and conservation groups, forging partnerships with them to promote their needs, Whiteley said.
Outdoor education is also a key component to the store's mission. One- to two-hour and one- to two-day workshops offer a variety of free classes.
Courses include hunter safety, camping, fishing, fly-fishing, archery and cooking, as well as seminars on topics such as identifying birds and vegetation.
An estimated 2.2 million to 2.5 million visitors annually.
Sales projections of $40 million to $50 million annually.
Anchor for a planned $55 million, 170-acre development.
Bloomfield master plan
Specialty retail
Restaurant major tenant retail
Major tenant retail
Restaurant
BassPro Shop
Sources: Bloomfield Equities LLC Johnson Bailey Henderson McNeel Architects, P.A.
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