Enormous sports store could be put in Aud

By KEVIN COLLISON News Staff Reporter 7/26/01

The largest outdoor and sporting goods store in the country would be the anchor tenant of a renovated Memorial Auditorium under a proposal that local development officials are pursuing.

Bass Pro Shop would build inside the Aud a store of between 125,000 and 165,000 square feet, twice the size of the new Galyan's sporting goods store at Walden Galleria, a source close to the discussions said.

But the Bass store depends on the city's building a parking garage to serve the new store and other expected development in the waterfront area at the foot of Main Street.

In Washington on Wednesday at a meeting with a bipartisan congressional delegation, Mayor Anthony M. Masiello confirmed that a key tenant in the redeveloped Aud would be Bass Pro Shop.

Masiello was seeking more federal aid for a number of projects including $7.5 million for the garage, which would be located on the adjacent Marine Drive Apartments parking lot west of the Aud.

House and Senate members who attended reacted favorably to Masiello's pitch. They have already obtained $6.5 million from Congress and the Clinton administration for the garage.

A source said the Aud's proximity to the water would give Bass Pro an excellent location to showcase its line of fishing boats and other craft.

The Bass Pro proposal appears to be the closest yet the Masiello administration has come to capitalizing on the long-awaited redevelopment of the downtown waterfront.

The city has been working with Cordish Co. of Baltimore and Benderson Development Corp. of Buffalo for more than two years on efforts to redevelop properties near where Adelphia Communications is planning to build its $125 million waterfront operations center.

Bass Pro stores average 140,000 square feet, and the Aud is 330,000 square feet. The Galyan's store occupies 80,000 square feet.

The Bass Pro store would be the first for the company in the Northeast and would be expected to attract customers from as far away as Syracuse and Pittsburgh. Bass Pro, based in Springfield, Mo., was founded in 1971 by owner John L. Morris.

The original, 300,000-square-foot Bass Pro in Springfield is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Missouri, said Larry Whiteley, manager of public relations for the company.

Washington Bureau Chief Douglas Turner contributed to this article.