Bass Pro-Type Retail Sought For Sites Along I-81

By Mac McLean
Reporter / Bristol Herald Courier
Published: May 28, 2008

BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. – The long-dormant 200-acre Bristol West site is among several commercial properties along Interstate 81 that the NETWORKS Sullivan Partnership hopes to make the area’s next retail destination.
NETWORKS Economic Development Director Jack Lawson said the property – which is located just west of I-81’s Exit 74 – is one of six sites between Bristol and Kingsport featured in a new retail development initiative the partnership started several months ago.
“We just need to get the word out that these sites are available,” Lawson said after discussing the project last week with retail developers at a Las Vegas trade show. “We would like to see something happening there now.”
Rather than focus on smaller department stores or strip-mall development, NETWORKS CEO Richard Venable said he and Lawson are focusing their efforts on “stores that have a regional appeal” like a Bass Pro Shops or a Cabelas.
In addition to Bristol West, NETWORKS is working with owners and agents of five other I-81 properties – a 75-acre tract of land near Exit 69, the Factory Stores of America complex at Exit 66, the Hamrick’s department store and the old Sam’s Club building at Exit 63, and the Tri-Cities Crossing development at the I-81/I-26 interchange.
During the 1990s, Bristol, Tenn., leaders spent almost $2 million installing utilities and building a road through Bristol West in hopes the development would put their city on the map.
But the property has sat vacant since then, attracting only a gas station, a restaurant and a 40,000-square-foot medical office building that broke ground in April 2004.
Lawson said the property’s location near the Bristol Regional Medical Center makes it an attractive site for other medical businesses like a pharmacy.
He also sees it as a site for highway-oriented businesses like hotels and restaurants that could take advantage of interstate off-ramps.
“We need to look and see what kind of stores we want and who would be successful here,” he said.
NETWORKS is an economic development group funded by governments in Sullivan County, Bristol, Tenn., Kingsport and Bluff City. The partnership has worked to create jobs in industrial and manufacturing businesses.
Venable said the group started looking into the retail sector six to eight months ago.
“We would like to attract things that would attract [other businesses] themselves,” he said.
Venable explained large regional stores often attract other stores much in the same way a new hotel can attract a new sit-down restaurant.
NETWORKS is also looking at businesses that do not yet have an established Tennessee presence but may be interested in expanding into the region.
“Destination retail is a natural fit for who we are,” Venable said, adding NETWORKS became interested in retail because its jobs have a steady growth rate.
He said the partnership plans to work closely with Bristol and Kingsport leaders to determine what types of businesses they want within their borders. Each city would be responsible for sealing the deal with a prospect because they have their own methods for determining what incentives, if any, a business might receive.
But such deals would likely be more than a year or so away. Lawson said one of the first things he learned during the Las Vegas trip was that, for now, the retail development sector has cooled because of the sluggish economy.
While a few businesses and developers showed an interest in the area, he said many are not planning any new expansions until the second quarter of 2009.
“This is a new focus [for NETWORKS] and I’d hate to say it, but we’re just learning,” said Lawson, who plans to use the meantime to gather better information about the region he can use in making future sales pitches to retail developers.

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