By next summer tons of outdoor merchandise will flow out of Tooele County to retail stores and direct business customers all over the western U.S. and Canada.
Cabela’s, which bills itself as the world’s foremost outfitter of hunting, fishing and outdoor gear, broke ground Tuesday on a new $70 million, 600,000-square-foot distribution center in the Ninigret Industrial Depot.
The new distribution center is expected to begin full operations by July 2015.
Before selecting Tooele as a site for a permanent distribution facility, Cabela’s started a temporary one last July with 30 workers and leasing the former Reckitt Benckiser building across from Miller Motorsports Park on Sheep Lane.
“Tooele City is the right place for us to be, not only for the next few years but for a very long time,” said Doug Means, Cabela’s chief supply chain officer, at the groundbreaking ceremony.
Means made the trip to Tooele from the company’s headquarters in Sidney, Nebraska to turn over a ceremonious shovel of dirt at Ninigret Tuesday afternoon.
“Cabela’s is growing,” he said. “We plan a long period of growth with lots of new stores and this facility is a big part of that plan.”
In 2013 Cabela’s opened 10 new retail locations. Thirteen new retail locations are planned for 2014 and eight new locations have been announced for 2015, according to the company’s 2013 annual report.
The new distribution center is expected to bring at least 178 new full-time jobs to Tooele County and an unspecified amount of part-time and seasonal employees, according to Randy Sant, Tooele City economic development consultant.
Tooele City Council members, acting in their capacity as the board of directors for the Tooele City Redevelopment Agency, approved a performance based tax incentive for the new distribution center that will return up to $4 million of property taxes to Cabela’s over a 15-year period.
The agreement with Tooele City requires Cabela’s to build a facility of at least 550,000-square-feet with a minimum assessed value of $40 million to receive the incentive.
The company must also employ at least 178 full-time workers or $5,000 will be deducted from the incentive for every employee less that 178, according to Sant.
The incentive will be paid from the increase in property tax that the RDA will receive from the distribution center.
Founded in 1961, when Dick Cabela began selling fishing flies through a newspaper ad in Casper, Wyoming, Cabela’s offers a wide selection of outdoor products through its established direct business and a growing number of destination retail stores.
The company ships merchandise to all 50 states and 125 countries and reported $3.6 billion in revenue for 2013, up 16 percent from 2012.
Currently, Cabela’s operates 54 stores across North America, including a 150,000-foot-store in Lehi.