Report: Bass Pro signs on for $100M Pyramid project

The newspaper reported Sunday that Bass Pro President Jim Hagale would be in Memphis today to go over the agreement with Memphis City Council and the Shelby County Commission. Both groups would need to approve the deal.

The redevelopment project is expected to cost more than $100 million and includes a 150,235-square-foot Bass Pro store, restaurants, an aviary and a museum. It also calls for a hotel, for which Bass Pro has been talking with hospitality companies to enter into a joint venture, according to the report.

The agreement has a one-year development period with quarterly milestones that Bass Pro must meet while it completes planning and obtains various approvals and permits. After a two-year construction period, Bass Pro would be required to pay at least $1 million in annual rent on the facility, which is the former home of the Memphis Grizzlies.

About $30 million in local funding for the project would come from federal and state sources, and the city and county would pay off the remaining $6.8 million bond debt on the Pyramid, the paper reports.

According to national consultant RKG Associates Inc., the Bass Pro project could produce annual revenues of $5.3 million to the city and $13.7 million to the county, and it could create nearly 600 jobs, the paper reports.