Bass Pro Shop opens Wednesday evening in Independence

The outdoors are open for business in Independence.

In a development that promises to nudge Jackson County's retail center of gravity farther to the east, the long-awaited Bass Pro Shops store opens tonight with a special "Evening of Conservation."

For fans of the Springfield-based retailer, this represents a red-carpet event, featuring celebrity fisherman Jimmy Houston, "Black Widow" billiards champion Jeanette Lee, Bass Pro race car driver Martin Truex Jr., and Johnny Morris, the chain's founder.

For Independence development officials, the mammoth 180,000-square-foot store represents the arrival of a coveted retail brand within their boundaries. The store will anchor the planned development of The Falls, a 200-acre urban woodland that includes an 18-acre lake, a 70-foot waterfall and more than 80 acres of city park space.

More significantly, the project is another piece of a vast commercial vortex — a combination of retail stores, restaurants and entertainment venues — growing ever more visible at the intersection of Interstate 70 and Interstate 470/Missouri 291.

Just to the east of the Bass Pro site, a 5,800-seat events center is in the works. City officials hope to break ground there this spring and, by the fall of 2009, the facility is expected to house a minor-league hockey team. To the north, 39th Street is emerging as a vital business corridor.

All of that, along with tonight's Bass Pro debut, may prompt Kansas City-area residents to think about Independence in a new way, said Tom Lesnak, president of the Independence Council for Economic Development.

"This store will bring in people not only for the shopping, but for entertainment, and that is the kind of thing that sets communities apart," he said.

Some site characteristics, including a heavily treed bluff just south of the lake, are said to bear the personal signature of Morris, who, officials said, wanted to create a vivid sense of arrival for visitors.

"What you have is a unique shopping center with a beautiful vista that is unlike any other in the Kansas City area," said Robert Heacock, Independence city manager.

"It can really make you feel that you are away from the urban grind."

"It is really kind of unique, with the waterfall and nature trails," added Larry Whiteley, Bass Pro Shops spokesman.

The new Bass Pro is the third big-box outdoors retail store in the Kansas City area, joining the Bass Pro location in Olathe and the Cabela's store in the Village West development of Kansas City, Kan.

But this store, said Lesnak, "has a setting that is different from the Bass Pro on the Kansas side. Even the Bass Pro people say this store is unique."

Certainly, the store's interior — heavy on antlers, fins and feathers, along with murals, faux boulders and hewn logs — may dazzle even the least of the outdoorsmen among us.

A 103-pound catfish, caught recently in the Missouri River near Wellington, Mo., is on display in an indoor tank. Live waterfowl paddle about in a small in-store pond near the men's apparel racks. Bass Pro caps bearing the name "Independence" on their bills are displayed not far from the beef jerky.

"Every Bass Pro Shops store is totally different," said Whiteley. "They are all themed for the different locations. There is really no other retailer that does what we do. That's why people take vacations to go to new Bass Pro Shops stores."

So what's not to like?

For local economic development officials, it's the lack of any additional retail in the oft-delayed project.

In 2004, Independence officials approved about $72 million in tax-increment financing for the $171 million project.

About $25 million of that was devoted to building the Bass Pro Shops store, which will be owned by the city.

City officials are not worried about the prospects for economic activity at the store.

"We believe they generate sales," Heacock said.

Much of the remaining TIF money was devoted to developing the rugged site.

The project was expected to generate sufficient economic activity to repay approved development expenses in 23 years. In crunching their numbers, city officials figured in sales revenue from a possible 500,000 square feet in additional retail space.

Yet developers of The Falls say they remain months away from making any announcements of signed leases, even though they've contracted a national broker to help seek such tenants.

"We are still very enthusiastic about the prospects," said Byron Constance, an Independence lawyer and a member of The Falls' development team.

The TIF agreement required a certain level of confirmed retail development by this summer, Heacock said. If a minimum number of leases are not in place, the city would be allowed to step in as developer on the project, he added.

"But we don't anticipate that will be necessary," Heacock said.

On the agenda

Opening ceremonies for the new Bass Pro Shops store in Independence begin at 6 p.m. today. The public is invited.

After a 6:30 p.m. ribbon-cutting, the store will be open for business until 9 p.m., and then reopen at 8 a.m. Thursday.

Access to the store, southwest of the intersection of Interstate 70 and Interstate 470/Missouri 291, is available through entrances off U.S. 40 and Lee's Summit Road.

To reach Brian Burnes, call 816 234-7804 or send e-mail to bburnes@kcstar.com.

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Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.