By Tim Zorn/Post-Tribune staff writer
Indiana’s governor believes a Cabela’s store in Hammond would be “a great project.”
But Gov. Mitch Daniels does not favor giving up some of the state’s sales tax revenue to help develop the store site.
“The governor doesn’t believe sales tax increment financing is a good use of state tax revenue,” Daniels spokeswoman Jane Jankowski said Tuesday. “But that doesn’t mean we won’t use it.”
Cabela’s, a Nebraska-based chain of huge outdoor stores, has bought land in Hammond and hopes to build a store there.
Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott Jr. has urged the state to approve sales tax financing for Cabela’s proposed development.
In sales tax increment financing, sales taxes from a new business are devoted to paying for infrastructure, such as new roads, at that site.
STIF has been approved only once in recent years in Indiana, to redevelop Scottsdale Mall in South Bend. The state authorized that in 2003, before Daniels was elected governor.
State officials don’t like STIF because the state loses some of its revenue.
“It’s not a tool that we use except in very unusual or rare circumstances,” Jankowski said.
McDermott could not be reached for comment after Daniels’ statement Tuesday.
Jankowski said the Indiana Economic Development Corp. will continue discussing financial incentives with Cabela’s.
Cabela’s spokesman James Powell said the company believes it can work with the governor’s office.
“We are glad they are considering tax increment financing,” Powell said. “From our perspective, the amount of investment we put into a store of this size is way beyond what a typical retailer does.”
A Cabela’s store can cost $30 million to $60 million to build, he said, and is typically a “destination store.” Some are huge tourism attractions.
Public spending for developing roads and other public infrastructure at a Cabela’s site is an investment, Powell said, and not a corporate handout.
“The people who understand the process understand it’s a good program for the community,” he said.
Cabela’s has the land, but it doesn’t have a final plan yet for building one of its super-sized outdoor stores in Hammond.
A host of details, such as how large the store will be, where the entrance road will go and which stores will be built near it, have to be worked out yet.
“We’re going 100 mph to work all that out,” Tim Holland, Cabela’s director of new store development, said Tuesday.
Cabela’s bought Woodmar Country Club, near the Indianapolis Boulevard interchange on the Borman Expressway (Interstates 80/94), on Monday.
Engineers were on the property Tuesday, Holland said, and the company hopes to start construction next spring.
“It will be very nice,” he said, noting that Cabela’s stores typically include museum-grade exhibits. “There’s really nothing else like them.”
He said the Hammond store could cover 150,000 to 200,000 square feet — “maybe bigger.”
But the plan for the 90-acre Woodmar site hasn’t been worked out yet.
Part of the development process includes bringing the site out of the flood plain for the Little Calumet River, which flows past the property’s southern edge.
The Little Calumet River flood control project calls for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to hire contractors to build the river’s levee west of Indianapolis Boulevard in 2007.
Cabela’s hopes to accelerate that schedule.
The Little Calumet River Basin Development Commission, which acquires land for the flood-control project, has met with Hammond officials to discuss the store but hasn’t seen a plan for it yet, commission director Dan Gardner said.
“It would be to everybody’s benefit to move the project up,” he said.