Cabela’s to open massive store just west of IKEA site

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This article was published 09/02/2012 (5234 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A showcase Cabela’s store has been confirmed as the first retail neighbour to IKEA in the massive Seasons of Tuxedo retail development taking shape in south Winnipeg.

The Nebraska-based outdoor supplies retailer received a city hall committee’s approval for site design at a hearing this week.

Company officials chose not to comment, but documents presented to the Assiniboia community committee show the company is planning to put up a 72,000-square-foot building on a 283,090-square-foot parcel of land.

The store — which will feature Cabela’s iconic gable roof, dormer windows with wood trusses and stone veneer — is to be built west of the site of the new IKEA store located on the southwest corner of Kenaston Boulevard and Sterling Lyon Parkway.

The Swedish furniture and home-furnishings retailer is building a 395,000-square-foot outlet in Winnipeg that is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

The Cabela’s plan indicates 380 parking stalls will be provided (although only 280 are required).

The building will be located on the south end of the lot, with the front entrance located on the north side of the building, facing Sterling Lyon Parkway.

The popular hunting, fishing, camping and outdoor merchandise retail chain chose Winnipeg to put up its first Canadian store in 2007, when it purchased the former S.I.R. Mail Order and Warehouse Sports Store at 1300 Ellice Ave. It has since acquired a 345,000-square-foot warehouse on Pandora Avenue East to serve as its Canadian headquarters and distribution centre.

Cabela’s is also building more stores in Canada. It is in the process of hiring about 150 people for a new 50,000-square-foot store in Saskatoon that is to open this spring.

It’s also opening a store in Wichita, Kan., in mid-March.

According to a company release on the Wichita opening, Cabela’s will have five new stores in 2012 in Washington, Arkansas and West Virginia, in addition to Saskatoon and Wichita. That means the new Winnipeg store is not likely to be open this year.

The Cabela’s store on Ellice is about half the size of the typical footprint of the 30-store, $2.6-billion-a-year operation. The new Winnipeg store is planned to be about twice the size and should have enough room to include some of the spectacular outdoors installations featured in most of its American stores, including the one in East Grand Forks, Minn.

For instance, the new Wichita store will feature 250 full-body animal mounts, a 4,000-gallon aquarium featuring fish native to the area located at the base of a mountain replica.

Cabela’s and IKEA are the first components of the projected 1.5-million-square-foot, $400-million Seasons of Tuxedo retail development on both sides of Sterling Lyon Parkway on the west side of Kenaston Boulevard.

Michael Nozick, president of Fairweather Properties, the project’s developer, said he could not speak for Cabela’s or any other large retailer who may eventually build stores on the property.

“All I can say is that it’s unfolding as it should,” Nozick said. “I hope to be able to release a bunch of news soon. It’s going to be a spectacular gem for the city.”

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca