Cabela’s could open late summer

By Dan Daly, Journal staff | Thursday, March 27, 2008

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After months of moving dirt, crews building the new Cabela’s store in Rapid City are moving quickly to construct the 80,000-square-foot retail store.

The store, just north of Interstate 90 between Exits 60 and 61, now has block walls going up. Also, crews are putting in water lines, sewer lines and other infrastructure.

John Castillo, a spokesman for the Sidney, Neb., outdoor outfitter, said Wednesday that the company doesn’t have a target date for opening the new store. It could be late summer, he said.

The company’s other new 2008 store, in Scarborough, Maine, is set to open its doors on May 15. Cabela’s had planned an aggressive construction schedule, with seven new stores to open in 2008. But a drop in sales at its existing retail stores forced the company to scale back its plans.

Rapid City and Scarborough are the only two stores to open this year. Stores scheduled to open in 2009 are Billings, Mont., and East Rutherford, N.J.

The Rapid City Cabela’s store will anchor a 700,000-square-foot open-air retail center, according to plans by Foursquare Properties of Carlsbad, Calif., developer of the retail site. No other retailers have been announced for the project.

When the Rapid City project was first announced in March 2007, Cabela’s predicted it would start work by last fall and be open for business this spring. But a city referendum, unexpected dirt work, and bad weather all slowed the process.

In July 2007, opponents to the city’s incentive package of 30 acres – revised later to 27 acres -- of land, $2 million in cash and tax increment financing, gathered enough signatures to put the land deal up to a public vote. On Sept. 18, however, 60 percent of the Rapid City voters approved the land transfer.

As recently as Jan. 31, the company was predicting a mid-summer opening.

Now work is under way in earnest. The contractor, Minnesota-based Kraus-Anderson Construction Co., has scores of workers swarming around the project this week. Masons on Wednesday were laying block for the south wall of the structure.  

Once the building is essentially complete, other workers will move in and start setting up the taxidermy displays, Castillo said. “We have a department that is responsible for themeing and displays in our stores,” he said. “They are purchasing taxidermy and receiving donations (of taxidermy).”

Contact Daly at 394-8421 or at dan.daly@rapidcityjournal.com.