Cabela's Coming to Houston
Forget heading out to Austin for your Cabela’s fix next hunting season. The firm just announced it'll anchor a new project in League City. The 72k SF store will sit at the intersection of I-45 and Big League Dreams Parkway in a Pinnacle Alliance Fund development. Pinnacle partner John Meador tells us he and his partners (Chris Janse, Marlin Williford, Robert Cranshaw, Howard Cordray, and Darin Gosda) purchased 110 acres in late 2012, and they’re planning a mixed-use destination/entertainment venue similar to other town center concepts in the metro. Pictured, Chris, Marlin, John, and Robert on site this morning.
John says it’s been a really long and difficult process, working through site challenges, developing a PPP with the City of League City, and bringing Cabela’s on board as lead anchor. Pinnacle brought on Marlin to work the trenches with League City, which hasn't always had a pro-business development attitude. A team change (including Mark Rohr joining as city manager) really changed its viewpoint on development. Now it’s supportive of the deal, and partnered with John’s team on a $2.5M ramp reversal at the site and extending Brookport Drive from Big League Dreams Parkway to the Grand Parkway (both projects are completing next month). Here's construction underway this morning.
This will be Cabela’s sixth location in Texas, and it’s part of a big expansion push for the brand continent-wide. It’s got 64 locations across North America, and has plans to open 17 more over the next two years. John says his team quickly ID’d Cabela’s as one of two anchor tenants it really wanted—there’s so much boating, fishing, and hunting in the area. It took 15 months to get Cabela’s on board and involved some very difficult negotiations (and a lot of effort to keep it all confidential).
Pinnacle’s overall project should benefit from the nearby Big League Dreams Sports Complex (pictured, it already brings half a million people to the area). It will be very pedestrian-friendly, John tells us, with many water features and green areas. He hopes to add some fabulous fine dining (League City doesn’t have many, so residents gravitate to Webster), hospitality, entertainment, medical, and some secret TBA destination uses. (Look for more announcements over the next few months, John says.) Cabela’s will begin construction immediately, and expects to open in fall 2015; John believes retail development surrounding it will crop up pretty quickly—as part of a $9M 380 agreement with the City, Pinnacle needs to develop 110k SF of additional retail in the next three years of Cabela's opening.
