Construction of $33M Cabela's in New Orleans area plagued by rain

New Orleans CityBusiness, Jul 3, 2007 by Angelle Bergeron

For the developers of Cabela's in Gonzales, it's too bad the massive sporting goods store isn't open already.

"We need the store to open so we can buy rain gear to finish putting it in," said Project Manager Nick Mills.

Jackson, Miss.-based W.G. Yates & Sons Construction Co. has been plagued by rain throughout the duration of the project, which includes building the $33-million, 165,000-square-foot sporting goods store, a $7.5-million Sportsman's Park and an additional $2 million in road improvements on nearby La. Highway 30.

"It was a swamp when we got here," said Mills, clarifying that the 110-acre site wasn't literally a swamp, but the ground was wet, muddy and covered with 6 inches of rain. "Our next milestone is putting parking lots in," Mills said. "We have started putting curbs in, but we need the rain to hold off long enough to lay the asphalt."

Summer in south Louisiana often brings 2 to 3 inches of rain in a normal afternoon, but General Superintendent George Creel has become efficient at pumping out water in a hurry.

"It can rain 2 inches and the water will be pumped out within five hours," Mills said.

Even Mother Nature can't be allowed to get in the way of this fast-paced schedule, which promises Louisiana's largest outdoor sporting goods store will be open in time for the 2007 holiday shopping season. Yates is committed to turning the building over to the owners by the end of August and the remainder of the project by fall.

"This is going from the ground to finish in 10 months," Mills said.

"This is the very first Cabela's in the Southeast, and the first for Yates."

Headquartered in Sydney, Neb., Cabela's has 19 stores and a dozen under construction. Cabela's are considered destination stores, usually built in small towns such as Gonzales and proven to attract economic development, developers say.

"Cabela's is always away from a city," Mills said. "They put these stores in and a town appears."

For more than two years, Gonzales Mayor John Berthelot has worked on facilitating the project and "going through all the hoops on the TIF (tax increment financing), which was a vehicle offered by the state,"

he said. "The project received 80 percent voter approval, and we think it will be a magnet to bring other national entities into the community."

The Home Depot and Outback Steakhouse are under construction nearby and work has started on a Sonic in the Sportsman's Park, Berthelot said.

"We have other entities, which I am not at liberty to disclose, looking at the site," he said. "Gonzales will be growing, and a lot of new people will be moving here to a lot of good jobs."

To operate the new store, Cabela's expects to employ as many as 400 people, said Cabela's President and CEO Dennis Highby, whose stores are known as shopping and tourism destinations, drawing customers not only from the immediate area but also from hundreds of miles away.

Already, about 150 people are working to deliver the project on time.

"I can't say exactly how many days a week they work, sometimes five, sometimes seven, because it depends upon rain, deliveries and sequence of events," Mills said.

There have been no incidents and no accidents, Mills said, partly because all subcontractors were required to have their own safety managers.

Cabela's stores are touted as educational and entertainment attractions, mixing museum-quality animal displays with colorful dioramas, huge aquariums stocked with native fish and a centerpiece indoor mountain displaying trophy animals interacting in recreations of their natural habitats, Highby said. The store also features a world-class gun library, full-service boat shop, shooting gallery, indoor archery range, an atrium and landscaped grounds, Highby said.

Each Cabela's entrance is marked by a large, custom bronze sculpture.

The design of the Gonzales store sculpture is a huge secret. The details of its design, even its placement, are a mystery even to the contractor, who will be required to set the sculpture secretly one night before opening day, Mills said.

All of the store's aspects require a host of custom elements not commonly used in local construction, including logs recovered from a forest fire in Glacier National Park.

The building is topped with an A-frame roof with translucent panels running down the center. The open interior features huge, laminated wood beams of differing sizes all of which had to be built on site, Mills said.

Yates will also build more than a mile of new road within the Sportsman's Park and make improvements to La. Highway 30 at Interstate 10.

"Right now we are in discussions with Cabela's about permitting the job that would involve an additional left turn lane that would allow traffic back up to I-10," said Brendan Rush, spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. "Right now, if you are driving down Highway 30, there is a left turn lane to get on the Interstate, heading west. We would make it so there would be two."

Cabela's permit is awaiting approval, Rush said.