Will Bass Pro Revitalize Pinch District?

Memphis, Tn - Bass Pro has agreed to move into the Pyramid and open the Bass Pro super store by November of next year.

The redevelopment goes beyond the vacant building to revitalize the Pinch District and all of downtown Memphis. As the Pyramid stands empty, so has the property around it. Vacant lots and buildings were just waiting to be developed.

Downtown real estate agent Chris Garland, with Garland Company Real Estate says the Pinch District has been on standby, "This neighborhood has been holding its breath for, I don't know how long."

The deal with Bass Pro putting a super store, restaurant and exhibit in the Pyramid has been a deal five years in the making. But Mayor AC Wharton and Pass Pro finally signed on the dotted line on a 20 year lease for $1 million a year rent.

Garland says the super store will have a ripple effect of development in the Pinch District.

"Once Bass Pro opens up here, all this property across the street can be developed and it can be hotels, restaurants shops."

Garland says condos like the ones across the street from the Pyramid will begin to sell again. Eventually home prices will rise. The price on property where retail can develop will go up immediately.

Bass Pro President Jim Hagale has seen a super store have this effect before. He says it will go beyond the Pinch.

"This redevelopment from the river to St. Jude's is the last remaining important piece to the redevelopment of the entire downtown area," says Hagale.

The $30 million redevelopment is called the Gateway Project and goes beyond the Pyramid. Retail and housing will extend all the way to St. Jude hospital.

Welcome news to Ferraro's, a pizzeria one block from the Pyramid that just opened Friday.

"We were hoping for it," says Ferraro's owner, Andrea Ferraro's. "Not counting on it, but hoping for it. And its been great news and we expect to have a lot of business down here because of it, construction as well."

The Gateway Project will be paid for by tourism revenues that would otherwise go to the state. No tax dollars will be used. The project creates a new look for the Pinch, the neighborhood that will welcome those entering Memphis from I-40.

"We had high hopes for the Pinch District," says Ferraro. "We're hoping to get locals back down here and make it the kind of place it used to be in years past. It can be again."