Bass Pro to build in Texas; Memphis negotiations ongoing

While lease negotiations reportedly continue between Bass Pro Shops and the city of Memphis, Tenn., the fishing and hunting retailer is proceeding with plans to build a new superstore in Texas.

The new store, Bass Pro's 57th in the United States and Canada, will be between 130,000 and 150,000 square feet, according to a Bass Pro news release, and will anchor the Cameron Crossing retail development in Harlingen, a south Texas city near the Mexican border, northwest of Brownsville.

According to the release, the decision to build the store was the culmination of two years of negotiation between the Harlingen City Commission, Harlingen Economic Development Corp. and Cameron Crossing's developers.

“Harlingen is the perfect location from which to serve South Texas and northern Mexico,” Armando Elizarde, president of the Harlingen EDC, said in the release “Cameron Crossing, with Bass Pro Shops as the anchor, will transform Harlingen.”

Meanwhile, talks between Bass Pro and Memphis officials to renovate the Memphis Pyramid into a Bass Pro destination store have reached a sensitive stage, according to a report last week in the Memphis Daily News.

The newspaper reports that Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton Jr. is telling media that he is still optimistic as the talks entered what he called a "communications blackout," meaning both sides will likely not release additional information until the deal is done.

Memphis Housing and Community Development Director Robert Lipscomb, who is leading the city side of the negotiations, was in Springfield on April 29 to meet with Bass Pro officials, the paper reported.

The company has set a November 2011 target date to open the renovated Pyramid, according to the paper.