MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Bass Pro said more 2 million visitors since opening in the old pyramid last April is proof it is a success, and other businesses in the Pinch District agree.
“People come. People go. People come back and look around and see where they can go,” Jake Schorr, the owner of Westy’s said.
But newly released information shows that success could cost Memphis money.
“If Bass Pro exceeds the amount of visitors that they were expecting, then if there’s not adequate surface parking, then the city would take, under the TDZ, and build a parking garage,” Councilman Berlin Boyd explained.
TDZ refers to a tourist development zone.
Bass Pro would have to request the city build the parking garage, and they said they have no plans to do so.
But Mayor Jim Strickland said, even if it does, it should not mean money out of your pockets.
“What I am hoping is that the TDZ revenues, the revenues generated, the sales tax revenues generated at the pyramid on Bass Pro sales are significant enough that that would pay for such a garage.”
There is no word on how much a garage would cost, and that is on top of a pedestrian bridge the city also promised to build connecting the pyramid and Pinch District, or the $100 million to redo the building’s interior.