Hook, Line & Sinker

VOL. 129 | NO. 219 | Monday, November 10, 2014

In May, when the first guests at Big Cypress Lodge inside The Pyramid open the French doors in their rooms, theyll be able to walk onto a patio overlooking the sprawling interior of the Bass Pro Shops store and attraction, including a re-creation of Delta cypress swamp and 600,000 gallons of water features.

With several new attractions added to the lineup, Bass Pro founder Johnny Morris, making a rare public appearance in Memphis, promised the project will be an unparalleled retail and entertainment experience.

All of us who have been involved really feel like we have the potential to create one of the most dynamic, immersive, entertaining retail stores thats ever been built by anyone, anywhere, I mean, anywhere, said Morris, the creative force behind many of the stores for the Springfield, Mo.-based company.

Its an undertaking that has become larger than any of us envisioned at the outset, said Morris, referring to the parts of the plan added recently and the investment the company is making. Outside our headquarters store, this represents the biggest commitment weve ever made as a company in retail, not only financially but in terms of the incredible amount of effort, passion, thought, time and energy that is going into this.

Morris comments came during a Thursday, Nov. 6, media tour of The Pyramid.

Bass Pro Shops executives say their store and other attractions at The Pyramid will open May 1, five months after previously planned, and the 100-room hotel they are developing in The Pyramid will begin taking reservations later this month.

Morris said local and national interest in the project is high.

Weve been receiving a lot of inquiries and questions from our customers as well as people here in the community of Memphis and really, to our amazement a little bit, a lot of questions coming in from all over the country. What in the worlds going on in this giant building called The Pyramid? Whats this going to be like? Whens this going to be open?

Bass Pro officials said the store could have opened in December but that they wanted the entire project, which is expected to employ more than 600 people, to open all at once. Successfully renovating a vacant sports arena into a 220,000-square-foot outdoors superstore, the equivalent in size to 4 1/2 football fields, is a monumental undertaking.

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