The following excerpt is from the February 21 edition of Business First:

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown remains confident that a deal will be struck for a Bass Pro Shops store on the shore’s of the Inner Harbor development project.

Brown, in his “State of the City” address delivered Feb. 20, said he expected positive news to be announced soon concerning Bass Pro.

When the project was first announced more than two years ago, Bass Pro had eyed Memorial Auditorium for a 250,000-square-foot store. Plans have since been scaled back and the site relocated.

Bass Pro and representatives from the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. are now negotiating on a plan that will see the sporting goods retailing giant open a 150,000-square-foot store on the edge of Lake Erie and the central wharf area around the Inner Harbor development project.

Sources I have spoken to indicate the Mayor could be making an announcement any day now.  The revised plans call for a 110,000 square foot store in the Inner Harbor area, about the size of a typical Wegmans.  The deal includes a financial arrangement with the City that has Bass Pro initially making $300,000 per year payments to the City.  The amount will go up in subsequent years.  I do not have the details about what that payment covers.  What is apparent is that Bass Pro will be receiving some kind of substantial taxpayer subsidy to finance the project.