Bass Pro Shops
Outdoor World

Steve cultivated the relationship between Mills and Johnny Morris, Bass Pro Shops founder and chairman.

  1. Over a 12-year period, successfully negotiated nine Bass Pro leases located in Mills properties. No other developer at the time had been able to create a platform for Bass Pro to expand on such a grand scale. These leases helped Mills accelerate its expansion timetable due to the draw Bass Pro had with other tenants as well as the sales tax it generated for local municipalities.
  2. Responsible for successfully negotiating the first location for Bass Pro Shops outside of the United States (in Toronto, Canada at Vaughan Mills). These negotiations included managing the team that created and developed the business plan for Bass Pro to conduct business in Canada.
  3. Securing the lease for Bass Pro proved instrumental in securing Ivanhoe Cambridge as the Mills joint venture partner for Vaughan Mills. The Vaughan Mills opening ultimately provided the platform for Bass Pro to expand to other Canadian locations (the Calgary store is slated to open in the spring of 2009).