The Harbor Point development that contains Bass Pro and other businesses has been for sale for several weeks. Today Ray Leszcynski writes a comprehensive article in the Dallas Morning News that covers the sale, the city's participation in the development, and the details of that involvement.
 
Also timely is a recent story in USA Today about Bass Pro CEO Johnny Morris: "Morris' retailing has come a long way: People drive for hours and will even stay overnight to visit one of the chain's 56 huge stores, which in addition to outdoors merchandise are filled with typically free activities ranging from archery to rock climbing. Several movies and TV shows have been filmed at its stores and, in the past nine months alone, nine couples have gotten married at a Bass Pro Shop. Even so, the firm is feeling the recession's pain." Follow the link to read the entire story.
 

From the Dallas Morning News, Metro section:

Harbor Point retail development in Garland listed at sale price of $29.2 million

12:00 AM CDT on Monday, October 12, 2009
By RAY LESZCYNSKI / The Dallas Morning News
rleszcynski@dallasnews.com
 
Harbor Point, the retail development on the shores of Lake Ray Hubbard featuring restaurants and star tenant Bass Pro Shops, appears to be for sale.
 
Harvest/Harbor Point Ltd. developed the property in Garland after reaching an incentive agreement with the city in 2005. Now it's seeking to sell the property for $29.175 million, according to a local Web site for real estate investment firm Marcus & Millichap.
 
Representatives of Marcus & Millichap weren't immediately available for comment regarding the sale or list price. But the development is listed as a featured property on the Web site of two local agents, Philip Levy and Jason Vitorino. The site's home page features a large photo of Bass Pro, information about the property and a link to a 46-page marketing package for potential buyers.
 
City officials said last week that a sale isn't unexpected and is, perhaps, overdue.
 
"It was always intended that they would be selling the property at some point to an investment group," said Assistant City Manager Martin Glenn. "That's normally what you see happen. We thought the marketing of the property would have taken place before now."
 
Glenn and others agreed that a sale doesn't mean the development, or the $23.7 million approved by voters in 2004 to fuel Harbor Point, is in any trouble. But the development has not lived up to its potential.
 
A hotel and a lakefront restaurant site have never been developed. One shoreline restaurant failed.
 
Signage restrictions along Interstate 30 and the exit from the freeway are troublesome, at best. And growth in the I-30 corridor isn't generating enough new tax revenue to cover the city's $1.26 million yearly debt payment – and it won't for years.
 
As part of the 2005 agreement, Garland agreed to rebate to Harvest/Harbor Point all sales taxes until either the total reaches $14.9 million or 20 years passes.
 
In 2007, the developer exercised its option to sell the nearly five acres that house the store to the city for $100 and lease it back for $100 a year, in effect taking it off the property tax rolls.
 
The incentives transfer to the new ownership once the property sells, Glenn said. But Bass Pro Shops, he insisted, isn't going anywhere.
 
"Everyone seems to be doing well," Glenn said. "I stay in close contact. Bass Pro is getting ready for holiday sales."
 
The most recent happenings at Harbor Point, though, have nothing to do with the Harvest partnership or Bass Pro Shops. Atlantic Hotel Group bought the hotel site about a year ago, and there has been talk of building a Holiday Inn Express.
 
Atlantic Hotel Group is connected to hotel projects in Frisco, Allen and Grapevine, Glenn said, but not to the Holiday Inn being built on the Bush Turnpike in North Garland.
 
Glenn said that progress on the Harbor Point hotel and other parts of the development have slowed because of the economic downturn. The city is prohibited from disclosing sales tax numbers for Harbor Point, but officials said it probably fits the city's overall portfolio in that it is tracking slightly behind 2008.
 
That translates into a buyer's market in at least one instance.
 
Dallas restaurateur Shannon Wynne said he was interested in Harbor Point from the start but didn't move in until July 2009, when he took over the site of the former County Line Barbecue.
 
"It's a very rare and lucrative time for healthy concepts to be looking at real estate," Wynne said recently, adding that his deal to establish a Flying Saucer Draught Emporium was nearly twice as good as when the property was first developed. "The property back then was very, very expensive."