Bass Pro announces expansion plans for Buffalo

The new store, set for a 2007 opening, will be approximately 250,000 square feet, making it the third-largest Bass Pro store. The Aud project also will include a museum/interpretive center, a hotel and a themed restaurant.

Among those present at the press conference was New York Gov. George Pataki, who said the development “will transform downtown Buffalo into a major must see tourist destination, create hundreds of new jobs and attract millions of visitors from western New York, the entire Northeast and Canada.”

A company news release said the store is expected to hire 400 employees from the area.

The Buffalo store announcement is Bass Pro’s 10th such announcement in 2004. Other new store sites announced this year are Kentucky, Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Iowa, and three new locations in Missouri, one of which will be part of the $300 million Branson Landing project.

Bass Pro spokesman Larry Whiteley said the location makes sense.

“Buffalo is the center of a 250-mile to 500-mile radius of a tremendous group of outdoor enthusiasts, and it’s right on Lake Erie, with its (hunting and fishing) history,” he said.

But not everyone is happy with the New York plans. Buffalo attorney and author James Ostrowski harshly criticized the funding proposal for the store, calling it “corporate welfare” in a 2,000-word critique he released the same day as the company’s announcement. The funding plan calls for the use of $66 million of public money, with Bass Pro providing the remaining $57 million.

“The city gets to own more parking ramps; our bloated and inefficient transportation monopolies get an expensive new station; and the state gets the Aud,” Ostrowski said in his critique. “The corporate welfare model gets more firmly entrenched. Anyone who thinks this is a movement away from big government and toward the free market is sadly deluded.”

Controversy also surrounds the proposed Bass Pro store in Denham Springs, La. That development has been temporarily halted by a lawsuit, currently in the Louisiana Supreme Court. Opponents of the New Orleans development say the funding plan for the store is illegal because it would divert funds away from schools and public works projects.

The Court heard oral arguments Nov. 29, and no timetable has been set for when a decision might be announced. Denham Springs officials, including Mayor Jimmy Durbin, say the land is cleared and construction awaits the court’s decision.