SANTA CLARITA IN TALKS FOR CABELA'S SPORTS STORE.

Byline: PATRICIA FARRELL AIDEM Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA -- The city of Santa Clarita is in preliminary talks with sporting goods giant Cabela's to build its first California megastore in Newhall, but it likely can expect some grueling negotiations about incentives.

The Nebraska-based retailer is eyeing land where Hondo Oil Corp. operated a refinery until the mid-1980s, acreage just off the Antelope Valley Freeway near where it branches from Interstate5, Paul Brotzman, Santa Clarita's planning director, said Thursday.

``It's very preliminary, but we have been looking in California for a while now,'' Cabela's spokesman James Powell said. ``We haven't determined a particular location. That property is attractive because it's central to a lot of natural areas, but we're not close to a decision.''

The location is ideal freeway frontage to draw from the San Fernando and Antelope valleys and beyond, Brotzman said.

Most Cabela's stores are about 3 or 4 acres and specialize in hunting, fishing and other outdoor sports, Powell said.

The chain is looking for about 30 acres, Brotzman said. ``They tend to be a fairly large sales-tax generator and a fairly large employer,'' he said, noting city officials first met with company representatives at a trade show earlier this year.

The state named Santa Clarita an enterprise zone in November, a status that could help draw Cabela's, Brotzman said. Under the system, cities receive tax credits by adding jobs for low-income workers. The store is proposed near the lower-end east Newhall neighborhoods and would provide jobs.

In some states, Cabela's is the largest tourist attraction, according to one consultant who works with the company and asked not to be named. Its standard market areas can cover more than a 100-mile radius. And Cabela's is known for driving hard incentive bargains in cities where it plans to locate, Brotzman said.

``Obviously, they have things they bring to the table that cities like -- tax revenue and employment,'' he said. ``They negotiate pretty hard for good land costs and also as much in the way of support from the city in terms of infrastructure and other support.''

Santa Clarita won't offer cash incentives, but it might consider using credits to pay for necessary improvements to roads, sewers and other public services, Brotzman said. Other cities have used big money to lure the retailer, according to published reports.

Buda, Texas, provided a $61 million tax package, and Fort Worth gave a $41 million package to sign deals with Cabela's, according to the Austin American-Statesman. Both stores opened in 2005. In Buda, the town agreed to own 20 percent of the store and a third of the land it's on, giving it partial tax-free status, the newspaper said.

According to the Journal Inquirer in Hartford, Conn., Voters in Hooksett, N.H., agreed to an $18 million tax district to help the store locate. In a deal approved earlier this month in Scarborough, Maine, the town will provide $8 million from a tax district to lure Cabela's.

Before any move to California, the chain first wants to settle a prolonged battle with the state to free it from charging its catalog customers sales tax.

Cabela's operates 18 stores, mostly in the Midwest, and has been expanding in all directions with recent approvals of 10 more outlets. The closest to California is in Glendale, Ariz., a fast-growing Phoenix suburb.

The company is big in wilderness regions that lure outdoor sports enthusiast -- the Midwest, New England and in Texas. But Powell said California is a target because of its own vast natural regions.

``California has a large number of licensed hunters and anglers,'' he said. ``That coupled with great hiking, birding and camping -- that's our core. We're one of the largest camping retailers in the country.''

Brotzman said the location near the freeway junction is ideal because it's easily accessible to a large region and is a gateway between Los Angeles and the sporting grounds of the Sierra.

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