Competition keen among stores in outdoor sales

Outdoors retailers in the region aren't happy about the tax incentives that may be included in the development proposal created for Cabela's.

Yet officials say local and state incentives for the right businesses are vital to bringing large-scale growth, revenue and jobs.

Family-owned Blythe's Sport Shop has stores in Griffith and Valparaiso and specializes in guns, archery equipment and accessories. Blythe's managers say it is unfair for mega outdoor retailers to get property tax, sales tax or other economic incentives.

Cabela's, however, says public partnerships are an integral part of its financial plans and are needed to make the cost of the mammoth destination developments feasible. Plus, the catalog and retail outdoor sporting goods dealer said it attracts millions of visitors -- and their dollars -- into their stores and surrounding communities annually.

"They expect the state of Indiana to step up, like other states have stepped up, because this is a tourist attraction," Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. has said. "It's literally tens of millions of dollars that have to be used to improve that property."

Cabela's spokesman Dave Draper said the incentives are necessary because infrastructure requirements "are so great, the incentives are needed to support us and the businesses that pop up around us."

A different view was expressed by Ed Hill, general manager of Blythe's. "It's not irritating as far as competition, we can meet the competition, but we do have issues with anyone coming in and getting tax breaks. That's pretty irritating.

"Every time we've needed money to build or expand, like everyone else, we go to the bank and borrow money."

Several weeks ago, Oppidan, a Minnesota-based investment company that builds and develops Gander Mountain stores and competes with Cabela's, tried to convince Hammond City Council members not to grant tax incentives to Cabela's.

Oppidan spokesman Mike T. Ayres said Tuesday that Cabela's doesn't need the Sales Tax Increment bonds it reportedly has requested.

"Cabela's knows where their customers are," Ayres said. "They locate there because that's where they want to be. Cabela's paid $14 million for the land yesterday; now that they're there, they don't need the state's assistance. .... We believe we should all compete in the open market. Let us all duke it out in the free market."

Like other existing region outdoors stores, which are much smaller retail outlets than Cabela's or a megastore Bass Pro Shops that is proposed for Portage, Fetla's Trading Co. south of Valparaiso opened without economic incentives.

"I don't think there's any small businesses that did get them, and that's unfortunate," Fetla's President Ken Banks said.

Still, Banks said he isn't losing any sleep over a Bass Pro Shops store or Cabela's moving into the region.

"I really don't think it's going to affect us," said Banks, whose 40,000-square-foot store sells everything from gym shoes to kayaks. "We know what people are looking for, whether it's black-powder guns or archery equipment."

Times Business Writer Susan Erler contributed to this report.