Bass Pro signs on for third Colorado store

Bass Pro Shops has signed a letter of intent to anchor a development in Loveland, Colo.

Under the agreement, Bass Pro would build a store in Loveland-based real estate company McWhinney's Centerra retail development, which is near Interstate 25, according to a news release.

The roughly 117,000-square-foot Bass Pro store is expected to initially create 250 jobs.

"Northern Colorado is known as a destination for some of the top retailers in the country, serving not only the local community, but also attracting shoppers from surrounding states," said Jay Hardy, vice president and general manager of the Centerra development, in the release. "By bringing Bass Pro Shops to Centerra, we will experience a tremendous opportunity for generating new revenue as well as boosting both short- and long-term job creation for the entire region."

With Bass Pro online, the developer expects retail sales at Centerra to exceed $500 million a year.

Bass Pro operates a store in Denver and expects to open a Colorado Springs location in summer 2013, according to its website.

Bass Pro competitor, Chappell, Neb.-based Cabela’s (NYSE: CAB), operates a west Colorado store in Grand Junction. It has stores planned for Thornton, which is about 42 miles from Loveland, and Lone Tree, a city on the southern outskirts of Denver, according to its website.

In separate Bass Pro news, the company's planned store at the Pyramid in Memphis, Tenn., has made headway as wrecking crews work to clear 14 silos along the Mississippi River to improve the waterfront near the Bass Pro development, according to The Commercial Appeal. Also this week, The Press of Atlantic City reported that the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority has approved $12.3 million for construction of a roughly $18 million planned Bass Pro store in the New Jersey city.

According to Bass Pro projections, 120 million people will visit its 77 stores and Tracker Marine centers in the U.S. and Canada this year.