Bass Pro Opens 180,000-SF Outdoor World

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CA-Bass Pro Shops has made its Inland Empire debut with the opening of a 180,000-sf retail store that is also part museum, art gallery, antique store and aquarium. Designed by the firm of Perkowitz+Ruth Architects in Long Beach, the new shop is located on the east side of the Victoria Gardens Regional Center adjacent to Interstate 15.

The new Bass store, which features an 11,090-sf Islamorada Fish Co. restaurant and a marine and boat center, is one of 42 locations in the US and Canada for Springfield, MO-based Bass. The store is the first in Southern California for Bass, which worked with the Rancho Cucamonga Redevelopment Agency and the City Council to sealed the deal for the giant store in 2005.

As GlobeSt.com reported at the time the city and the retailer struck their deal, officials estimate that the new retail venue will bring Rancho Cucamonga more than $1 million a year in sales tax revenue. The city officials and Bass Pro Shops representatives worked on the agreement for more than a year.

Rancho Cucamonga city officials, upon signing the Bass deal in 2005, said the store would be “part retail, part entertainment and part outdoor adventure.” They expect it to become a retail and tourist attraction for both the Inland Empire region and Southern California.

Perkowitz+Ruth Architects designed the entire store as a tribute to California’s desert landscapes, its forests, mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Like other Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World retail locations, the Rancho Cucamonga store takes on the flavor and atmosphere of the region in which it is located.

The Rancho Cucamonga store, for example, features more than 3,500 area artifacts, antiques, pictures, mounts and memorabilia. Inside, the building features waterfalls that splash into a 24,000-gallon aquarium.