Officials mum on $4M construction project at Bass Pro

SBJ photos by Eric Olson

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Officials with Bass Pro Shops and Wonders of Wildlife National Museum and Aquarium are staying mostly mum for now on a construction project on the Campbell Avenue side of the company’s flagship store.

Springfield Business Journal has observed construction workers on-site and a crane lifting steel beams for a new roofline between Bass Pro and the WOW video screen facing Campbell Avenue.

“Wonders of Wildlife has some exciting plans and will be sharing more information soon,” WOW spokeswoman Shelby Stephenson said via email. “We anticipate sharing more details in tandem with our upcoming anniversary.”

Building permits for 1935 S. Campbell Ave. point to $3.8 million in addition and remodeling work for "new museum space” by the Johnny Morris Foundation. Plans call for an 8,613-square-foot addition and the remodeling of 2,311 square feet.

WOW held a grand reopening on Sept. 21, 2017, and officially debuted the next day, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting. It had been closed for nearly 10 years for remodeling. It reopened at 350,000 square feet, connected to Bass Pro’s 500,000-square-foot Outdoor World store.

Bass Pro spokesman Jack Wlezien deferred questions on the project to Stephenson. Insight Design Architects LLC partner Eric Albers, who’s listed on city building permits for the project, deferred questions to Bass Pro.