Cabela's scouts Boomtown

Boomtown Casino Hotel has entered into a preliminary deal with Cabela's to bring the Midwest-based sporting goods retailer to Reno.

"We have signed a letter of intent with Cabela's," said Jack Fisher, general manager at the resort.

The deal, if it goes through, could take a year, according to Jim Middagh, director of property management at Boomtown.

It's unclear whether Cabela's would buy or lease the property that lies west of Boomtown Road and north of Interstate 80.

"There is a dearth of details at this point," said Middagh.

"But we certainly hope Cabela's chooses to come to Reno and locate here."

Boomtown owns approximately 580 acres at the western edge of Reno.

The site Cabela's is looking at is now used for cattle grazing.

Cabela's, based in Sidney, Neb., builds huge retail stores that include indoor sporting features such as 40- foot-high mountain replicas, 65,000- gallon freshwater aquariums, archery ranges, and shooting galleries as well as restaurants and museum-quality wildlife displays.

For example, two new Texas stores recently announced by the company will be 230,000 square feet and 185,000 square feet, and each employ 500 people.

A Cabela's store, which draws thousands of visitors daily, is considered as much a tourist destination as it is a shopping mecca.

Calls to the retailer were not returned by press time.

It had long been rumored that Cabela's was looking at Reno, and was in talks to locate about eight miles east of town at property now under development by The Rockland Group LLC and owned by Richard Wrobleski, an owner/broker with CB Richard Ellis in Reno.

A $6 million mechanic's lien against that property and its owners was recently filed by Material Expeditors LLC.

The Las Vegas-based company has been doing excavation work at the site.

According to an attorney for the company, the lien resulted from a contractual claim between the two parties.

The Boomtown area is also being looked at by Reno's redevelopment agency.

The agency is now studying whether to expand its scope beyond downtown to include several new areas, including near Shopper's Square and Park Lane malls at South Virginia Street and Plumb Lane, Kietzke Lane near U.S.

395 and Boomtown.

The agency is working with the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Reno, along with Keyser Marston Associates Inc.

of San Francisco and Meyers Nave of Oakland, Calif., to conduct the study.

The agency is chartered to facilitate redevelopment of areas that are blighted or underutilized, according to a city press release.

If an area is designated as a redevelopment area, the city can help developers expedite permits, and finance infrastructure work for which the city is responsible.