Bass Pro Shops eyes Hicksville for 1st metropolitan-area store

Sporting goods retailer Bass Pro Shops is proposing to build its first store in the metropolitan area on the site of the former Sears automobile repair center in Hicksville.

The 130,000-square-foot store, to be called Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World, would feature an indoor aquarium, historical displays and hundreds of taxidermy wildlife mounts, officials said Thursday night.

There also would be an array of merchandise for hunting, fishing, boating, camping and other outdoor activities.

Bass Pro customers are intensely loyal. Half travel more than 40 miles to a store and spend 2½ hours per visit on average, said Daniel P. Deegan, the retailer’s real estate attorney.

He predicted the Hicksville store would become "a tourism destination" attracting outdoor enthusiasts from New York City, northern New Jersey and the lower Hudson Valley, as well as Long Island. Their purchases would generate millions of dollars in additional sales tax revenue for state and county governments.

"Bass Pro is actually the top tourism destination in five different states, and the No. 2 tourism destination in nine states," Deegan told a meeting of the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency.

He added that for the retail chain to move forward with its $65 million plan for Hicksville, IDA tax breaks over 20 years will be required.

Bass Pro is requesting a sales-tax exemption of up to $3.3 million on the purchase of construction materials, supplies and furnishings, plus 20 years of property tax savings, according to the company’s application for IDA assistance.

The IDA board voted unanimously to begin negotiations with Bass Pro.

The agency’s treasurer, John Coumatos, a restaurateur from Bethpage, said the project was unusual because it involves bringing in an out-of-state company. Bass Pro is based in Springfield, Missouri.

"I've been here [on the IDA board] about 13 years, and I have to say that this brings back memories of what it used to be like to bring a big business to Long Island," Coumatos said. "Over the last couple years, it's been apartment buildings. ... It's been tough with high interest rates to bring anybody to Long Island."

Under state law, IDAs are prohibited from assisting retailers unless a significant number of the customers are from outside the immediate area, which would be the Island in the case of the Nassau IDA, according to Sheldon L. Shrenkel, the latter’s CEO and executive director.

"A tremendous amount of these people are going to be from the five boroughs and out of state," he said, adding the closest Bass Pro is 67 miles away in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

The Hicksville Bass Pro would employ 215 people, with 190 of them earning $33,370 per year, on average, according to the IDA application.

Construction of the store at 195 N. Broadway wouldn’t start until late next year or early 2028, assuming Oyster Bay Town grants the necessary approvals, the application states.

The Sears car repair center and adjacent department store are both owned by Bethpage developer Steel Equities. Sears closed in 2018, Newsday previously reported.

Bass Pro would be the sole tenant of the repair center property, while the department store property has been rented to Lincoln Technical Institute, a trade school, and Antech Diagnostics, a veterinary medical laboratory, Newsday has reported.

The Bass Pro store would be across from the Broadway Commons Mall and represents the chain’s third attempt to come to Long Island, said a knowledgeable source who requested anonymity because they didn't have permission to speak publicly about Bass Pro’s plans.

In 2014, Bass Pro committed to constructing a 100,000-square-foot store as part of a planned redevelopment of Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale. The project never got off the ground, as the developers filed lawsuits against each other.

By James T. Madore

james.madore@newsday.comJamesTMadore

James T. Madore writes about Long Island business news including the economy, development, and the relationship between government and business. He previously served as Albany bureau chief.