An announcement Tuesday that Cabela’s Inc. plans a store in Grand Junction doesn’t change the Nebraska-based outfitter’s commitment to building one in Wheat Ridge.
Company and Wheat Ridge officials said the long-planned Wheat Ridge store at the southwest corner of Interstate 70 and Colorado 58 will move forward when economic conditions improve.
“Cabela’s remains firmly committed to opening a store in Wheat Ridge, although we don’t have an exact date,” said Cabela’s spokesman John Castillo.
The company plans to open a 75,000-square-foot store early next summer in the vacant Mervyn’s store in Grand Junction’s Mesa Mall.
It will be the first Cabela’s store in Colorado. Currently, the nearest Cabela’s stores are in Lehi, Utah, and Sidney, Neb.
Several states have two or even three Cabela’s stores.
“Colorado is a strong-enough market that it certainly deserves multiple Cabela’s stores,” Castillo said.
Cabela’s chief executive Tommy Millner said the Western Slope “is a prime location for a variety of outdoor activities, including world-class hunting and fishing, and Grand Junction is the gateway to everything Colorado offers.”
Five-year effort
Castillo said Grand Junction was too good of an opportunity to pass up because it will be significantly less expensive than the Wheat Ridge store and allows retail expansion into Colorado.
“It is a retrofit of a building and not a complete build from the ground up and doesn’t involve surrounding infrastructure,” Castillo said.
Cabela’s has worked for more than five years to build a 185,000-square-foot “retail destination showroom” on the 40-acre Wheat Ridge site.
Cabela’s has put an estimated $1 million into the site, including a massive amount of earth-moving and relocation of a major Denver Water pipeline.
“We are still working pretty aggressively with them,” said Wheat Ridge City Manager Randy Young. “We talk at least once a week, share information and continue to work toward a successful project.”
Money put into area road improvements is worth it, officials said, because Cabela’s and development of an adjacent 190-acre commercial site will come.
Ann Schrader: 303-954-1967 or aschrader@denverpost.com
