Buffalo Waterfront News Team

7/16/2008 9:47:20 AM

 

Officials say yes to Bass Pro

 

City of Buffalo, N.Y., officials on Tuesday gave initial approval to knock down the city’s Memorial Auditorium – the “Aud” – and build a Bass Pro Shops in its place, The Buffalo News eports.

 

The city’s planning board rubber-stamped a site plan that has demolition beginning in October and construction of a 125,000-square-foot Bass Pro kicking off as early as March 2009. The store – part of the $400 million Canal Side redevelopment project around historic Erie Canal Harbor – is slated to open in 2010, according to the report. A master plan for the complete project should be made public by late summer.

 

Renderings for Bass Pro’s Outdoor World store show a multilevel building with underground parking for 450, the report said.

 

Plans for a Bass Pro in the Aud, which is the former home of professional hockey team the Buffalo Sabers, were first announced in 2004 and originally called for rehabilitating the structure.