Updated: 05/22/07 8:29 AM
Bass Pro Shops has gone from “quarry” to “bait,” as Buffalo leaders look to lure other retailers for the proposed Canal Side project in the city’s Erie Canal Harbor neighborhood.
Among the targets: home furnishings giant Ikea and a powerful urban investment group led by former basketball great Earvin “Magic” Johnson.
Mayor Byron W. Brown is joining forces with Benderson Development Co. to pitch the $275 million mixeduse project — to be anchored by a Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World store — at the International Council of Shopping Centers annual convention this week in Las Vegas.
“When Bass Pro is part of a project, other retailers sit up and take notice,” Brown said. “Having a commitment from Bass Pro and a physical plan for Canal Side puts us in a very powerful position to sell Buffalo.”
Benderson’s Eric Recoon said Canal Side will get special emphasis among the dozens of retail developments the national developer will pitch at what is considered the “Super Bowl” of retail gatherings.
“Bass Pro is the most sought-after retail tenant in the country, bar none, so we have a special opportunity to offer,” Recoon said. “The combination of Bass Pro and a waterfront setting is unique and compelling.”
Canal Side will be anchored by a waterside Bass Pro store housed in a period-style building along the Buffalo River, flanked by a public market and museum. It also will include an additional 600,000 square feet of retail/office/residential/entertainment development on adjacent blocks.
The mix of retail, residential and commercial projects will sprout up on the sites of the idle Memorial Auditorium and vacant Donovan State Office Building, as well as the Webster Block, which is currently a surface parking lot. Neither Brown nor Benderson officials would disclose their full list of retail, restaurant and entertainment targets but did confirm they will sit down with Ikea, the popular Swedish seller of sleek furniture and contemporary home decor items. Ikea’s closest stores to Buffalo are in Burlington, Ont., Toronto and Pittsburgh.
Ikea currently operates 29 stores in the United State but is slowly expanding. It recently announced plans to open new locations in Cincinnati, Tampa, Fla., and Charlotte, N.C., and will build a new distribution center in Joliet, Ill.
Another key meeting involves “Magic” Johnson’s Canyon- Johnson Urban Fund, which specializes in commercial projects in underserved urban neighborhoods. In the past decade, the fund has invested more than $750 million in 22 projects in such cities as Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland and Los Angeles.
“We’ve had extensive phone and written contact, so having [Johnson] say he wanted to sit down with us is huge. This meeting demonstrates a serious interest in Buffalo,” Brown said.
Canyon-Johnson’s project portfolio ranges from Burger King restaurants and Regal Cinemas to five-star hotels and luxury condominiums.
“The potential of this relationship is nothing short of breathtaking,” Brown said.
Recoon, whose company will stage upwards of 400 retailer meetings this week to pad its national tenant roster, cautioned that the convention is about “planting seeds, not closing deals.”
“We’ve certainly started conversations there that have resulted in contracts, but it doesn’t happen overnight,” he said. “Sometimes it takes years.”
But Canal Side planners need time to turn their proposals into final blueprints. They are at the beginning of a complicated approval process that will include federal and state environmental assessments, demolition of existing structures and multiple actions by the Buffalo Common Council. Any construction is at least a year off.
Recoon said the uncertain nature of the ambitious project won’t be a concern to prospective retailers.
“This is standard operating procedure,” he said. “In our industry, we are constantly talking with tenants about projects that aren’t constructed and aren’t fully approved.”
While Canal Side is at the top of Brown’s agenda this week, the mayor also plans to pitch several other Buffalo neighborhoods as retail hot spots: Elmwood and Hertel avenues and the “midtown” section of Main Street, from the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus in the 800 block to the ArtSpace loft project in the 1200 block.
The mayor said the overall message about doing business in Buffalo is a “bright and hopeful” one.
“We have $3.4 billion in development projects in the works, crime is down, residential investment is up, and we offer a quality lifestyle at a comparatively low cost,” Brown said. “We’re not waiting for good things to happen anymore. They are happening.”
Brown also is appearing on a panel of mayors from so-called “underserved markets” to discuss ways to attract fresh retail activity to urban neighborhoods.
The convention also will provide Brown and Benderson the opportunity for a face-toface meeting with Bass Pro executives, the first since the late March announcement of a predevelopment agreement for a Bass Pro Shops store at the Central Wharf site.
slinstedt@buffnews.com
