As the opening date for the Leeds Bass Pro Shops approaches in November, residents of the city, which is divided among three counties, may be wondering what the store will mean for their community.Jim Byard Jr., mayor of Prattville, may be able to answer some of their questions.
Byard said the announcement that Bass Pro would be coming to Prattville was made in May 2005 and construction on its store was under way by October 2006.
He said the store opened Aug. 16, 2007.
“Our deal with Bass Pro came along after they announced the store in Leeds,” Byard said. “Their store had been taking some time and people thought we were telling a tale that Bass Pro was coming. It proved to some folks that we were not crazy or telling them any lies about it.”
Things have gone a bit differently for Leeds, but Mayor James “Tac” Whitfield said delays from numerous discussions and changes in approach were meant to ensure the quality of the store.
Although the plans for a Bass Pro were announced in early 2002, it has taken about six years to find the right approach and design for the store that will have a prime central location in the state.
“The owner of Bass Pro said he thought of this store as his canvas,” Whitfield said. “It probably equals added quality to the presentation of the store. Thank God that process has been completed and construction is under way. This store was considered a long shot, but all the puzzle pieces are finally falling together.”
Byard said he is proud Prattville will always hold the honor of having the first Bass Pro in the state, even if three more stores are in varying degrees of development throughout Alabama.
The 140,000-square-foot store in Prattville, just off Interstate 65, features two large aquariums, a fudge shop, a mural of the nearby Alabama River covering the walls and an 8,000-square-foot seafood restaurant.
“The seafood restaurant, the Islamorada Fishing Company, gives us a beach feeling a lot of customers enjoy,” Byard said. “It makes people feel as if they are in the Florida Keys. We have also noticed that people have learned the schedule for feeding the fish in the aquariums two times a week and will bring their children or grandchildren to the store to watch the fish eat.”
While the 150,000-square-foot Leeds Bass Pro will not have a seafood restaurant, it will be the only store in the state to have a nature park that will encompass 30 to 35 acres of the surrounding land.
Whitfield said he hopes the nature park will be as big a draw for tourists as the store itself.
The Leeds store will also feature an aquarium and a fudge shop, as well as an indoor waterfall and a boat showroom.
The Prattville Bass Pro is situated in a large retail development, the High Points Center, that includes many retailers that might not have moved to Prattville had the Bass Pro deal not solidified.
While Byard said stores are still announcing they are moving into the shopping center after less than a year of Bass Pro being open, some nearby retailers include Target, Home Depot, JC Penney, Belk, Publix, Best Buy, Olive Garden, IHOP and Mellow Mushroom.
“Bass Pro definitely helped get some of those retailers in there,” Byard said. “When it was announced that Bass Pro was coming, they were sitting on the fence until we found out for sure whether Bass Pro would be constructed or not. It is wonderful to have Bass Pro as part of a new 1.5 million-square-foot retail corridor.”
Whitfield said the Leeds Bass Pro has paved the way for such retail opportunities as the Grand River project being developed to bring retailers, restaurateurs and lodging into the area.
He said even though the store is not completed, it has completed its task of being a catalyst for growth in Leeds.
“Bass Pro is the seed we hoped it would be that has ignited quality growth at the 140 Exit of Interstate 20,” Whitfield said. “This is a well-known retailer that will serve as a catalyst, along with the Barber Motorsports Park, for growth that Leeds has needed so very much.”
Byard said Prattville, with a population of about 35,000 residents, will not see the full potential of the financial benefits from Bass Pro until a year has passed this August, but he said the company has laid a foundation for the future that should allow all parties involved to succeed.
He said the agreement to build a Bass Pro in Prattville involved constructing a $25 million store and purchasing land surrounding the store for about $8 million, for a total cost of about $33 million to develop the store.
However, he said Prattville has raised sales tax in the store from 8.5 percent to 10 percent, with plans to rebate the extra 1.5 percent in sales taxes to Bass Pro for the next 20 years as a way of paying off the $25 million cost to build the store.
Byard said this allowed the city to keep its initial costs in the deal to a slightly more manageable $7.5 to $8 million to purchase the surrounding land.
Whitfield said the bonds for the Leeds Bass Pro are similar, with about $6.4 million in bonds going toward the nature park and roughly $27 million going toward construction of the store, including infrastructure in the area.
Leeds is also looking at about $33 million in total costs for its store over the next 20 years. However, Bass Pro Shops guaranteed the bonds for the Leeds store to keep taxes in the area from being raised to pay back the construction costs.
Having the store in a Cooperative District developed by Leeds, Moody and St. Clair County to share the costs and benefits of bringing businesses into the area will help disperse the burden of debt for the Leeds Bass Pro.
“We will have help in paying back the bonds from our partners,” Whitfield said. “We are in a 50-50 agreement with Moody and St. Clair in which we pay half of any costs in the Cooperative District and Moody and St. Clair will each pay a fourth of the costs.”
Whitfield also said the city has begun work on hiring more public safety employees before retailers have officially opened so that citizens and visitors will feel safe visiting the new store.
He said the city has already hired additional police officers and plans to hire more firefighters.
Whitfield said Bass Pro has committed to providing monetary contributions for public safety as part of its contract with Leeds.
Byard also stressed the importance of increasing police, not to fight criminal activity, but to prevent it from taking place in Prattville with so much additional retail property.
“We are now the fifth fastest growing city in the state,” Byard said. “We are able to bring a lot of national folks from musicians to athletes to professional fishermen into our community with Bass Pro. We have increased police surveillance of the area for the safety of our visitors. I hope the millions of predicted visitors a year come — I just hope it’s not all at the same time.”