Two whoppers

Baton Rouge ‘burbs get dual outdoor stores

By Angelle Bergeron

If you’ve never heard of the Louisiana towns of Denham Springs or Gonzales, it’s time to start planning a weekend getaway to one or both of the Baton Rouge bedroom communities to check out two of the country’s top outdoor sports enthusiast stores.

Cabela’s and Bass Pro Shops are hurrying to open their signature stores in time for the holiday shopping season.

Likewise, contractors W. G. Yates Construction Co. of Philadelphia, Miss., and VCC of Little Rock, Ark., are racing the clock to deliver one-of-a-kind, high-profile buildings that anchor huge economic development projects in the two host cities.

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Current construction has already provided an economic boost, spawned new surrounding development and generated a great deal of excitement.

“This job is probably the most rewarding I’ve been on because the whole community is involved in it,” says Nick Mills, project manager for Yates, which is charged with constructing the $33 million Cabela’s in Gonzales, a $7.5 million Sportsman’s Park and an additional $2 million in road work on nearby La. Hwy. 30 and Interstate 10.

“Everywhere you go, people are excited about it,” Mills says. “Mayor John Berthelot and all sorts of important people are involved, and if you see them in town, they shake your hand.”

Both Bass Pro and Cabela’s are considered destination stores and each boasts an unparalleled experience for outdoor enthusiasts that includes things such as indoor archery and shooting ranges, aquariums, boat showrooms, dioramas, restaurants and all sorts of spectacles that make them more than merely places to shop. Both also have a reputation for setting up shop in out-of-the-way, small towns and stimulating development.   

“We are already reaping the benefit from sales taxes of construction materials, and employment is up,” says Denham Springs Mayor Jimmy Durbin, who began wooing Bass Pro back in 2003. The 163,000-sq-ft Bass Pro is being constructed on 24 acres of land at Interstate 12 and Range Avenue that is owned by the Denham Springs Economic Development District and is surrounded by an additional 40-plus acres that are ripe for development, Durbin says.

“Down the street there is a property on Range Avenue that has been idle for years. That 2.5 acres sold for about $1.3 million,” Durbin adds.

Those property value increases, as well as improvements to the I-12 interchange at Range Avenue, probably would not have happened if Bass Pro hadn’t come to Denham Springs, Durbin says.

Likewise, Gonzales is already reaping the benefits from construction of the 165,000-sq-ft Cabela’s, the largest outdoor sports store in Louisiana.

“We’ve worked on this for more than two years, going through all the hoops on the TIF (tax incremental funding), which was a vehicle offered by the state that received 80% voter approval,” says John Berthelot, mayor of Gonzales. “It will be a magnet to bring in other national entities. We’ve already got a Home Depot and Outback Steakhouse under construction. We have a lot of interest in the city of Gonzales now, and it’s Cabela’s that brought it here.”

The fast-paced schedule is the biggest challenge for contractors on both projects. Yates received the notice to proceed for Cabela’s Jan. 22, and the contractor is scheduled to turn the building over to the owners by the end of August and complete the whole project by fall.

“This is a different kind of fast,” says Mills, who prior to this job completed the $300-million-plus restoration of the Beau Rivage in Biloxi (damaged by Hurricane Katrina).

“We put the Beau Rivage back together in 10 months with lots of different high-end finishes. This is going from the ground to finish in 10 months.”

Next to the pace and the constant battle with rain, the hardest part of the job is coordinating all the different subs handling all the different custom finishes, Mills says.

The finishes at Cabela’s include custom color panels on the metal roof and logs that were recovered from forest fires in Glacier National Park in Montana and shipped to the site to form the porte-cochere, Mills adds.

“This is the coolest thing I have seen,” Mills says, standing in front of the building’s covered entrance. “We don’t get a chance to do this kind of work much in the Southeast.”

Coordinating the 150 workers onsite and the 18 or 19 subs, with all the requisite parts and pieces, isn’t easy, Mills says.

“Everything about this job is special, so it takes a lot of planning and coordination,” he adds. “As massive as this is, if you slip three weeks, you’ve lost everything. George Creel, general superintendent, is the key to this job. He has the best organizational skills I’ve seen in any job I’ve been on.”

Legal battles surrounding the economic incentive package actually afforded the contractor ample time to coordinate a cohesive team, Mills says.

“We spent 1.5 years working on the project before we ever started, which allowed us time to get quality subs and interview each one personally.”

One of the intriguing elements of construction will be the placement of a huge custom bronze sculpture. A unique sculpture adorns the entrance to every Cabela’s, and the design is kept secret until opening day.

“It’s all hush-hush,” Mills says. “They bring it in and we set it in the middle of the night.”

The Bass Pro Shop in Denham Springs will be different from any other store in the chain by featuring artifacts and taxidermy that reflect local flora and fauna as well as the signature Bass central aquarium that is “heavily themed to look like a Louisiana swamp with a cabin on top of it,” says Sean Easter, vice president of construction for Bass Pro Shops.

VCC received the notice to proceed in early April, and the contractor is scheduled to deliver the structural steel and tilt wall building by fall.

Bass Pro also had a long wait while the local community wrangled over economic incentive issues.

“Because of delays in the project, we had to rebuild the building pad that was two plus years old,” Easter says. The delay also caused increases in labor and material prices, which have been inflated since Hurricane Katrina.

The Denham Springs Bass Pro includes a 25,000-gallon aquarium being constructed as a “project inside the project,” Easter says. The 25-yd pistol ranges were fabricated by Shooting Ranges International of Las Vegas.