Craig Smith is KGUN 9's Southeast side reporter. Send your story ideas to Craig at craig.smith@kgun9.com.
There’s a big new store about to open near I-10 and Kino—and it’s safe to say there’s nothing quite like it in Southern Arizona. The new Bass Pro Shops that opens at 6pm Wednesday adds to a retail cluster that has brought new life to nearby neighborhoods.
Your average retail store does not come with its own large fish tank but we’re talking about the Bass Pro Shops getting ready to open at 1500 E Tucson Marketplace Boulevard near Kino and I-10. If you’re into the outdoors, it's effectively a theme park.The fish are some of the same species you’d find in an Arizona river or lake and Bass Pro Shops is ready to help you get out on one of those lakes, catch a fish and cook it.“Pretty much anything for grilling; spices, cooking, vacuum sealing, packaging of food.“Store manager Bruce Miller says the store is about a hundred thousand square feet of everything for hunting, fishing, and camping so tailored to Arizona that the handpainted murals show Arizona outdoor scenes.The store expects to reel in outdoor aficionados from as far away as Texas and Mexico. Taking care of that business adds jobs to our local economy.Miller says, “We have roughly, right now, about 150 outfitters, we call them, and they're subject matter experts that have been hired from this area. But the bigger part of that is we had almost 1600 folks show up for interviews for the 150 positions that we did fill.”Bass Pro Shops is the latest addition to the Tucson Marketplace development in The Bridges. The Bridges brought a boom to what had been a blighted area.“If you'd have seen it before. It was homeless. It was just a lot of nastiness out there. So now it's nice, and the whole community is really happy about the situation.”Willie Blake is a community activist in the neighborhood right nearby. He says he worked to get resources to clean up the area, clean out the crime and attract businesses. Bass Pro Shop is about fun and recreation but other stores in the Bridges provide necessities of life.Blake says, “We had no place to shop over here before. We had to go it all the way to Valencia or either Sam's on Grant. Now, look at it. Now we can go right across the street, the four neighborhoods, Western Hills, Pueblo Gardens, Los Vistas and South Park, we can just go right across the street. We got everything we need there.”
Craig Smith KGUN9 Willie Blake Fishing Hunting Sports
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