St. Louis Mills Getting Cabela's

ST LOUIS, MO-Cabela’s Inc. expects to open a large store next year at St. Louis Mills, a 1.1 million-sf shopping, dining and entertainment center located in the St. Louis suburb of Hazelwood. The 125,000-sf store will be Cabela’s first in Missouri.

Sidney, NE-based Cabela’s sells products for hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, boating, outdoor clothing and furnishings. The company got its start as a catalog retailer but over the last several years has opened 14 big-box stores. Most recently, the company opened an 185,000-sf store in Rogers, MN.

The company has opened several stores this year and plans to add nine stores over the next two years. In 2006, it has announced plans to open stores in La Vista, NB; Gonzales, LA.; Glendale, AZ; and Richfield, WS. In 2007, it has announced plans to open stores in Reno, NV; Wheat Ridge, CO; East Rutherford, NJ; East Hartford, CT; and, as announced earlier this month, suburban Chicago.

St. Louis Mills is situated at the northwest quadrant of State Highway 370 and Missouri Bottom Road, one mile west of Interstate 270 and three miles west of Lambert International Airport. The Cabela’s store here will have a mountain replica at its heart that will have waterfalls and streams, a trout pond and trophy animals in re-creations of their distinct habitats.

Earlier this month, Cabela’s said suburan Chicago will be a location. The company nailed down a site in Hoffman Estates within the 780-acre Prairie Stone Business Park at Interstate 90 and Route 59. The new store, the first Cabela’s in Illinois, is expected to open as early as summer 2007.

The site for the new suburban Chicago store borders the Cook County forest preserves, the 11,000-seat Sears Centre Arena and a proposed water park and hotel. The new store, which is expected to employ as many as 400 people, will be built in a style similar to other Cabela’s stores, according to a company statement.