Print edition: 
Cabela's and city officials formally kicked off the construction Thursday of the company's second Kansas store, an 80,000-square-foot prototype at K-96 and Greenwich in northeast Wichita.
Dirt work has begun on the store on the north end of the Regency Lakes Shopping Center, which should open in early spring 2012 to join Cabela's 10-year-old Kansas City, Kan., facility.
Company and city dignitaries took part in a ceremonial groundbreaking and previewed the arrival of the outdoors retailer in Wichita.
"We're embarking on something truly great that will help boost the economy and everything that goes with it," said Wichita City Council member Pete Meitzner.
The Wichita store will be a smaller, but similar, version of the 180,000-square-foot Kansas City store.
It will feature the traditional Cabela's design: exterior log construction, stonework, wood siding and metal roofing.
The front of the store will be open through a large glass storefront, which will feature an aquarium, wildlife displays and trophy animal mounts.
"We look for many different criteria when we're deciding where to put a store," said Jeff Lang, the Great Lakes region retail manager for Cabela's.
"For this particular area, several things were key. One was support. Mayor Carl Brewer has been a huge component in wanting us. It's been overwhelming.
"We've had cards, letters, e-mails from the residents of Wichita saying one simple thing: 'We want a Cabela's in Wichita.' "
Lang said catalog and Internet orders from the Wichita area continue to grow.
"It saddens me a little bit to know we'll lose a little bit of business in Kansas City, but over the last 10 years the support for that store has been absolutely phenomenal," he said.
Wichita Metro Chamber chairman Lynn Nichols pointed to job creation and tourism during his remarks.
"Cabela's is known as a regional draw, and what could be better than having a great store like Cabela's in Wichita filling up great hotels in Wichita?" he asked.
Nichols also noted the 200 jobs Cabela's is bringing to Wichita, jobs that company officials pledged Thursday to fill locally.
"That doesn't happen every day," Nichols said. "So thank you very much for creating 200 jobs."
The project price tag is $28 million, with $17.2 million coming from a community improvement district the Wichita City Council approved in March.
That CID, over 22 years, includes a 1.2 percent extra charge that Cabela's will tack on to all store sales.
Cabela's has 32 stores nationwide and two in Canada. Other new stores this year are being built in Washington, Arkansas, West Virginia and Canada.
The Law Company, a Wichita design-build firm, is the general contractor for the project.
