Bass Pro Shops will anchor and be the owner-operator of a 75-acre mixed use development at the intersection of I-85/Highway 101.
The 120,000-square-foot Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World store will be the anchor tenant at the Hwy. 101 and 85 development that is scheduled to open in 2016. That means all subsequent developments including retail stores, hotels, restaurant, bowling alley and maybe a movie theatre will be cultivated by Bass Pro Shops.
The development will be on the opposite side of I-85/101 where BMW Manufacturing of Greer is located. GreerToday.com reported the substance of the announcement on Tuesday.
“We are very excited to have the opportunity to build a super outdoor store directly fronting I-85 near Greer. We're proud to offer Bass Pro Shops low prices and famous friendly, expert service to the many sportsmen and women who call this region home,” Johnny Morris, founder of Bass Pro Shops, said in a written statement. “This store will be a tribute to the great sporting tradition and heritage of the region and a celebration of the sporting men and women of South Carolina.”
Several years ago Bass Pro Shops, headquartered in Springfield, Mo., was ready to announce it would be anchoring a similar development at Highway 14 South and I-85, code-named “Project Granite”. The resulting downturn in the economy delayed the announcement.
“Back then it was more of a developer driven project,” said Carter Smith, Executive Vice President, Spartanburg Economic Futures Group. “This is more occupant driven. It’s different than all the other projects like this, that I can tell.”
Smith called the Bass Pro Shops project a “shopping destination.” When completed it will resemble Concord (N.C.) Mills and Sugarloaf (Lawrenceville, Ga.) Mills.
“What this does for Spartanburg County is we are continuing to evolve in our strengths,” Smith said. “We have a number of things going for us and very good leadership, public and private. On the economic development side, we have tried to prepare and position ourself,” Smith said.
Wryley Bettis, Greer Development Corporation Chairman, said, “Spartanburg County deserves all the credit for this. I’ve only heard little things about this the past six or seven months. A lot of people will be happy this is happening well below I-85.”
Bettis said the project would be the impetus for other major developments that typically follows a shopping destination this large. “This will show that (Hwy.) 101 is ripe for development,” Bettis said.
“We will see more rooftops and that will result in a grocery store coming into the community. The infrastructure may be OK . . . we have plenty of utilities. It’s ready to go, like a turnkey operation. Everybody will say now is the time to pull the trigger.”
The property, owned by Pacolet Milliken Enterprises, Inc, is the same firm that is selling a parcel of land to Toray Industries Inc., a Tokyo-based carbon fiber manufacturer. Toray announced a month ago it was investing a record $1 billion investment in Spartanburg County on Hwy. 290 in Moore.
The state’s second Bass Pro Shops is scheduled to open in North Charleston in 2015. A third store is in Myrtle Beach.
Wednesday’s announcement followed nearly two weeks when Cabela’s, a competitor of Bass Pro Shops, opened a 100,000-square-foot store at Magnolia Park off Woodruff Road in Greenville County. That store created 235 jobs.