Update: Cabela’s recently announced it was slowing its plans to open more stores to only four this year.
Retailer says it has no plans for store at Buckhorn Road development
By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer
Though not certain that Cabela’s is indeed the anchor tenant for the recently announced Buckhorn Village retail and mix-use center, a competitor of the outdoor retailer is already gearing up for a fight.
David Ewald, a public-affairs consultant who works for Cabela’s competitor Gander Mountain, said he’s heard that Cabela’s may be considering locating a store in the 128-acre site off I-85/I-40 in Orange County. If so, Ewald says, be prepared to hear that an economic incentives package is part of the mix. There are three Gander Mountain stores in North Carolina, located in Fayetteville, Greensboro and Morrisville.
Ewald, who has testified in several public hearings around the country on local government incentives for Cabela’s, said the company’s competitors have created jobs and opened stores without asking for taxpayer money.
The group of Buckhorn Village developers led by Southern Village co-developer Montgomery Development declined to say whether the anchor tenant for what is projected to be a total of 1.1 million in commercial space is Cabela’s.
Montgomery’s John Fugo, who is handling inquiries for a group that also includes Meadowmont developer East West Partners and Hillsborough Gateway developer George Horton, said he was not at liberty to discuss who the main tenant might be or whether the group or the company will ask for economic incentives as part of the deal.
Fugo pointed to a Feb. 25 public hearing scheduled on the project.
John Castillo, a spokesman for Cabela’s said the Sidney, Nebraska-based retailer “currently has no plans to build a store†in the area. Castillo said the company is aware that it has many loyal customers in the state and continues to look for opportunites around the country for places to open up new locations.
County officials meanwhile said they could offer no confirmation about Cabela’s. In an email response to The Citizen, Barry Jacobs, chairman of the Orange County Board of Commissioners, wrote that at this point the developer of the project has not asked for economic incentives nor are there ongoing economic incentive discussions between the developer and the county.
Cabela’s practice of selling itself as a “destination†retailer and requesting incentives makes up a chapter of the recently released book Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill) by David Cay Johnston. Johnston argues that many of the company’s promises don’t play out as well as local governments hoped.