What goes better with bass fishing than bowling?
If the slow-going concept by Bass Pro Shops is an indication, that might be a winning combination despite its surface oddities.
Officials of the Springfield-based outdoor retailer have agreed to open a casual diner and 16-lane bowling alley in Florida – with a nautical theme, of course. Construction reportedly began last week on Uncle Buck’s Fish Bowl and Grill at Destin Commons, a shopping mall in the popular Gulf Coast tourist destination of Destin, Fla.
Bass Pro already operates three of the Uncle Buck’s bowling concepts since its introduction in the Des Moines, Iowa, market in mid-2009. The second and third locations – East Peoria, Ill., and Harlingen, Texas – didn’t arrive until two years later, and Uncle Buck has been quiet since late 2011. However, with Destin moving forward and restaurant and bowling alley plans in California and Florida targeting openings in 2014 and 2015, it appears Uncle Buck is making a comeback.
In traditional Bass Pro style, the Fish Bowls feature alligator-mouth ball returns, giant squid suspended above bowlers and bowling balls designed with octopus, mermaids and camouflage.
The restaurant and bar is designed to overlook black-lit bowling lanes decked out in underwater scenery of sea turtles, sharks and stingrays, while murals bring to life oceanic creatures. The concept, which is in partnership with Brunswick Bowling, also includes billiards rooms.
Rumor has had it that bowling pins might be rumbling underneath Wonders of Wildlife when construction work is completed to attach the museum and Bass Pro’s granddaddy Outdoor World at Campbell Avenue and Sunshine Street. If those talks are mere rumors – we’re not sure when we’ll know the answer given the take-your-time approach to the construction project that began in late 2007 – Springfieldians might be able to try Bass Pro bowling with a four-hour drive to Little Rock, Ark., where an Outdoor World and bowling alley are slated to open in November.
The Fish Bowl still feels like a concept that’s being tested in the waters, though. Sure, it’s uniquely pairing a popular indoor sport (special thanks to “Kingpin”) with the outdoor megastores, a contrast that could create draw, but if it was going gangbusters, it seems Bass Pro officials would be finding a way to squeeze these 20,000-square-foot activity centers into existing store sites. The stores alone are still attracting attention – 2012 sales approached $4 billion, according to Forbes Magazine – and Bass Pro plans to open 22 stores within two years.
The company certainly has learned to complement its store experiences with food and drink options for hungry shoppers and tourists.
There are nine brands in the Bass Pro restaurant family, most notably Hemingway’s Blue Water Cafe in Springfield, White River Fish House in Branson and some 17 Islamorada Fish Co. restaurants across the country that started in the Florida Keys. Other seafood-centered cuisine is served up at Bass Pro’s Blue Fin Lounge in Foxborough, Mass., Uncle Buck’s Brewery & Steakhouse in Grapevine, Texas, and five Uncle Buck’s grills.
Hunting, fishing and food, now there’s an appetite for that.
The prickly PyramidBass Pro’s long-awaited and complexly structured plans for the publicly-owned Memphis Pyramid on the banks of the Mississippi River also include an Uncle Buck’s bowling alley and restaurant.
Talks with Memphis city officials and economic developers began in earnest in 2009, and after a few rough patches related to physical and financial structuring, Bass Pro recently received good word. The city has agreed to cover $30 million in property improvements, including seismic design requirements, before new tenant Bass Pro moves in, and the retailer’s revised sign package received favorable reviews following an uproar over the exaggerated yellow, red and green Bass Pro logo on all four sides.
Bass Pro is going big or going home on this one – with proposals including a hotel dubbed Big Cypress Lodge, two stories of its outdoor merchandise, an angled, glass elevator dubbed the “sky ride” to the top of the stainless steel Pyramid (similar to the St. Louis arch), a floating dock on Old Man River and glass observation decks. It’s a high-risk deal with big potential for Bass Pro, considering the city’s financial struggles date back 20 years on the vacant arena that stands 32 stories tall. According to Tennessee Watchdog, the city of Memphis has spent $100 million in taxpayer money trying to figure out the best use of the uniquely designed structure. It was most widely known as the basketball home of the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies and the University of Memphis.
The revised sign package – unveiled by Bass Pro executives July 16 in Memphis and scheduled to go before a downtown design review board on July 30 – eliminates boldly colored, internally illuminated signs on all sides of the Pyramid in favor of matching metallic images, with limited LED illumination, only on three sides. While there are nearly 30 sign placements to be approved, the largest signs proposed remain roughly the size of a basketball court.
Financial terms call for a $1 million annual lease payment and a 50/50 split of the sky ride profits.
The latest reports out of Memphis say the city is scheduled to turn over the Pyramid keys to Bass Pro by September, and the full project is slated for completion in December 2014.
I guess they don’t call it the Mighty Mississippi for nothing; Bass Pro is hoping the river doesn’t turn muddy in these parts.
Springfield Business Journal Editor Eric Olson can be reached at eolson@sbj.net.[[In-content Ad]]
