Minneapolis’ Kraus-Anderson Construction Company has been building Cabela’s outdoor stores since 1997. And the company’s relationship with the growing retailer doesn’t seem to be slowing; Kraus-Anderson is slated to build two more stores for the company this year, locations in Woodbury, Minn., and Waco, Texas.
These two new locations will mark the 19th and 20th Cabela’s stores built by Kraus-Anderson.
What is the secret to this long-standing relationship? Why has Cabela’s so often tapped Kraus-Anderson?
Rich Jacobson, senior vice president with Kraus-Anderson, said that Cabela’s appreciates that his company meets its deadlines and that it turns in good work. But there is also a mesh of cultures when Cabela’s and Kraus-Anderson work together. And that, too, has played a role in the companies’ long relationship, Jacobson said.
“Our cultures mesh together very well,” he said. “We are a Minnesota contractor. The outdoors and hunting and fishing are very important to Minnesotans. That’s very important, obviously, to Cabela’s, too. Our people really want to work on Cabela’s projects. They have both a professional and personal interest in these projects.”
Jacobson, for example, lives in Woodbury. He’s thrilled, then, that the next Cabela’s store coming to Minnesota will be opening in his home town.
The Woodbury Cabela’s is scheduled to open in the fall of 2014. The 85,000-square-foot store will sit adjacent to the Tamarack Village Shopping Center.
Kraus-Anderson staffers are eager to take on the challenge of this new project, Jacobson said.
“No matter what the square footage of these stores, they always have some of their key signature concepts. They’ll have the log exterior, the mountain, the aquarium,” Jacobson said. “You learn to work with those concepts. They are certainly not typical to an average retail store. It’s not every day that you build a mountain inside a store.”
