10 years ago, Bass Pro Shops was taking shape in north Bibb County

Ten years ago, construction was underway on two facilities that continue to make a big contribution in Middle Georgia.

Workers were building a Bass Pro Shops store and, perhaps more significantly, the outdoor retailer's first distribution center outside its Springfield, Missouri, headquarters.

The 125,000-square-foot Sportsman's Center store and the attached 500,000-square-foot distribution center are off Bass Road and Interstate 75 in north Bibb County.

The privately held company invested more than $45 million in the project and employs a total of about 400 full-time workers.

"Bass Pro has made a big impact on our community," said Pat Topping, senior vice president of the Macon Economic Development Commission. "Special events that draw people to their store, events aimed at the young future shoppers as well as the current sportsmen increase the sales tax revenue of Macon-Bibb. Bass Pro has also given back to the community through charitable donations, raising environmental awareness and wildlife management."

The early expectation that Bass Pro would be a destination store -- a place that shoppers sought out -- became a reality. It carries a variety of outdoor equipment and clothing, including boats, fishing and hunting gear and camping supplies.

"We are a big Friday, Saturday and Sunday store," said Tom Moody, general manager of the store. "We get a lot of people who are traveling. When there is a show in town, like when (country music singer) Luke Bryan came a few weeks ago, we get a ton of people who are on the road and will stop in before or after. ... It's a lot of highway traffic. When it's a holiday or an event, we get a lot of weekend warriors."

One thing that makes this store particularly attractive to shoppers is that it's one of two stores in the entire chain that has an outlet department, Moody said. The other outlet is at the main store in Missouri.

"A lot of the closeouts and a lot of the clearance (items) they will ship to our store," he said. "There are a lot of people who will shop us just for our outlet."

About 30 of the store's 200 workers have been there since it opened, he said. Bill McGill, the merchandise manager, is one of those employees.

"I moved here for this job," McGill said. "I love it. ... For two years I traveled in a visual capacity to different stores, so I've seen just about every store."

When he would notice something in a store that could be done better, "I would always reference the Macon store, saying 'this is how the Macon store does it.'"

Each store displays a theme related to the region. Duck hunting scenes are apparent in the Macon store. It also has a large fresh-water aquarium stocked with fish native to Georgia. A mounted alligator was added a few months ago.

The distribution center, although attached to the store, is completely separate from the store. The Macon store has to place orders for merchandise just like any other store.

The number of stores the distribution center serves and the volume of merchandise it handles have increased significantly since it opened.

When it opened, the distribution center shipped merchandise to about five stores, said Herb Caver, the director of distribution. Now this center serves the entire Eastern seaboard.

"Over the years, it's evolved to a major distribution center within the Bass Pro supply chain servicing 34 stores," he said. About 20 trucks go out to the stores every day from the Bibb location.

The distribution center employs about 200 full-time workers, and at least 10 of those were original hires.

In 2005, the company had 26 retail stores in 22 states. It's set to open its 78th Bass Pro store in Connecticut this month, and it has 20 free-standing Tracker Marine dealerships. The retailer is now in 31 states with four locations in Canada.

'MORE THAN JUST THE JOBS'

The timing of Bass Pro coming to Bibb County was significant. Middle Georgians were still licking their wounds from the announcement in 2003 that Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. would close, affecting more than 2,100 workers.

While rumors about a new project had been swirling for several months, The Telegraph first reported that Bass Pro was coming in January 2005. The distribution center opened in March 2006, and the store opened in October that year.

More than 1,000 people attended opening day, not only to shop but also to see a number of sports stars, including NASCAR driver Tony Stewart and former Atlanta Braves outfielder Dale Murphy.

"The impact was more than just the jobs that came with Bass Pro. It was a boost to our morale," said Roy Fickling, president/CEO of Fickling & Co., who helped bring the company to the area long before Bass Pro finally settled on a location.

There were so many twists and turns early in the process -- and so many people who had to push through a lot of red tape and seemingly dead ends -- that the deal almost didn't come together.

As an airplane pilot, Fickling is often called on to fly prospective company officials around the area to look at potential locations. In August 2003, Topping asked him to fly some industrial prospects around to look for a possible distribution center site, Fickling said. The prospect was known as Project Dano, as the company's identity was kept a secret. The prospect decided to look elsewhere, and the project was dead.

Six months later, Johnny Morris, the founder and president of Bass Pro Shops, and other executives came to Augusta to look at an existing building for a distribution center. They stopped by Atlanta to visit then-Gov. Sonny Perdue. It turns out Project Dano was Bass Pro Shops.

"During their visit with the governor, he urged them to take another look at Macon," said Fickling, who was contacted by Topping to fly the executives around the area again.

It started out as a distribution center prospect only.

"During their second visit, I urged Johnny Morris to consider Macon as a location for a retail store as well as a (distribution center)," he said. "I explained the demographics to him and told him that I thought it would be an ideal central location for one of their stores."

Topping changed the name of the project to Phoenix, "signifying its rise from the ashes," Fickling said.

By April 2004, the company had decided to build a store and an adjoining distribution center.

HURDLES TO CLEAR

While that was good news, it was the beginning of a number of challenges to find a suitable site for both. The store needed to be visible from the interstate and have the right demographics to work, and the site had to be zoned for a distribution center.

"As luck would have it, I had some land under contract next to the apartments we had under construction on Bass Road that would fit the bill, if it could be zoned accordingly," Fickling said.

Another challenge: Bass Pro wanted a proposal right away, which Topping and Fickling quickly put together. A few days later, they were invited to Bass Pro headquarters and they struck a deal.

Then a massive undertaking began to get everyone on board, including the Water Authority, Industrial Authority, local and state governments, engineers, and Planning and Zoning, as well as regional agencies.

"With the help of many people and organizations, we were able to overcome each obstacle one by one," Fickling said. "Every time we hit a snag, someone stepped in and fixed it."

During the official announcement of the project in mid-January 2005, Morris told The Telegraph he didn't choose the location because it was off Bass Road, "but it sure didn't hurt," he said. "Sometimes it's just fate. Some things are meant to be."

A separate part of the original plan was that Bass Pro Shops would be the anchor for the 200-acre site called Market Place at Bass. Fickling planned to build an additional 400,000 square feet of upscale retail restaurants, store and a hotel from Bass Road down Bass Pro Boulevard to Bass Pro Shops.

But the economy took a turn for the worse before that could happen.

"We were well on the way to developing the rest of the site and had even applied for building permits when the Great Recession hit the U.S.," Fickling said. "We made a conscious decision to wait for the economy to recover before attempting to restart the development. ... We have been in business in Macon since 1939 and continue to maintain a long-term view."

Other nearby retail projects that had been proposed after the Bass Pro announcement also never developed.

The recession affected "quite a few business segments, and retail was certainly in that group," Topping said. "We are starting to see that segment come back, but I think you will still see companies acting a little more cautious in expansion decisions."

Fickling said that despite the obstacles along the way, bringing Bass Pro Shops to Bibb County was important in many respects.

"In my opinion, the most important thing that occurred with the Bass Pro Shops project was not what was built on Bass Road," he said. "The most important and encouraging thing to me is that (it) proves this community can achieve the near impossible if we all work together and pull in the same direction toward a common goal."

To contact writer Linda S. Morris, call 744-4223.

This story was originally published November 7, 2015 at 9:30 PM with the headline "10 years ago, Bass Pro Shops was taking shape in north Bibb County ."