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Cabela's To Hire Staff As Opening Nears

Outdoors Retailer To Fill 450 Jobs At 185,000-Square-Foot East Hartford Store That's Expected To Open In October

July 10, 2007
By DAN UHLINGER, Courant Staff Writer

EAST HARTFORD - Looking toward a grand opening in October, Cabela's will begin interviewing candidates next week for 450 jobs at its new outdoors merchandise store at Rentschler Field.

Richard G. Hyland, the newly named general manager, said Monday that he has already filled about 75 percent of his management team positions.

"There's about 15 to 20 management positions, and a good portion are people from this area, but there are some transfers from other stores," Hyland said.

Hyland said people interested in working at Cabela's should fill out an application on the company's website, www.cabelas.com. Candidates will be contacted and interviews scheduled sometime next week in a conference room at the Holiday Inn in East Hartford.

The positions include sales, stocking and other retail store duties.

Hundreds of construction workers have been building the $80 million, 185,000-square-foot Cabela's store, which is envisioned as the centerpiece of a $2 billion multiuse development planned for about 650 acres at Rentschler Field. The walls and roof of the two-story structure have been erected, and tradesmen are working on the interior. A 10-acre lake where customers will be able to test merchandise, such as fishing equipment, is also planned next to the store, but will not be ready for the grand opening.

Cabela's said it expects about 3 million people to visit the new store annually, which will specialize in hunting, fishing and outdoor gear.

As Cabela's prepares for its new store, a competitor, L.L. Bean, is getting ready for an Aug. 10 grand opening of a 30,000-square-foot store at Evergreen Walk in South Windsor. L.L. Bean, the mail-order retailer of outdoors clothing and merchandise based in Freeport, Maine, plans to have its new store open 24 hours a day during the grand-opening weekend. The store will be the largest at Evergreen Walk.

Cabela's will anchor the retail area of the Rentschler Field development, which will include 5.7 million square feet of technological research offices, hotels, medical and sports facilities, housing, a new school, entertainment, restaurants and retail stores.

Dan Matos, the developer of Rentschler Field, which is owned by United Technologies Corp., said East Hartford Boulevard North, a road leading from the Silver Lane entrance of the UTC campus to Cabela's, is nearly completed.

The Cabela's store would be one of the company's largest and will serve as the retailer's flagship in New England.

It will be similar to the Cabela's in Hamburg, Pa., and designed to replicate the feeling of the outdoors, with museum-quality animal displays and aquariums stocked with fish native to New England.

Cabela's, based in Sidney, Neb., is one of the country's largest direct marketers of outdoor merchandise and operates 21 stores. In addition to the East Hartford location, the company has plans to open 12 other stores across the country.

Hyland, who had been general manager of Cabela's Dundee, Mich., store, said he was excited about his recent reassignment.

"It's fantastic to come to East Hartford. This will be the first truly Northeast store for Cabela's," Hyland said.

"East Hartford is a perfect, natural fit for us, given the amount of population in New England. The area's natural beauty and abundance of outdoor activities make Cabela's a perfect fit. We know there's a great deal of outdoors people here."