L.L. Bean plans to develop a 700-acre outdoor adventure center in Freeport, with the goal of creating a national recreation destination. The project site is about a mile from its flagship store, and will feature lodging and dining facilities.
Visitors to the site and another Bean-owned property along Casco Bay could try activities from biking and archery to kayaking and snowshoeing.
The concept was the brainchild of former chief executive and current board chairman Leon Gorman – the grandson of Leon Leonwood Bean – as a way of making it easier for people to enjoy outdoor activities, Carolyn Beem, a Bean spokeswoman, told the Associated Press.
The plan, still in its preliminary stages, was first reported Tuesday in the Portland Press Herald, which obtained a copy of a confidential document asking hotel development companies to spell out their qualifications for taking on such a project.
Bean envisions a “family-friendly outdoor adventure attraction with lodging amenities under something similar to a theme park operating model,” the document said.
There are no plans for roller coasters or log flumes. Instead, the idea would build upon efforts by outdoors outfitters like Cabela's, L.L. Bean and Bass Pro Shops to generate customer traffic by offering rock-climbing walls, aquariums and even ponds to let customers try out equipment.
Beem insisted the project was not a response to plans by Cabela's to develop a 125,000-square-foot store in Scarborough, 25 miles from Freeport. That store will anchor a $75 million development that includes a 200-room hotel, restaurants and a bank.
The new center would build on Bean's experience with its Outdoor Discovery Schools program that offers instruction in skills such as fly fishing and kayaking.
Bean plans to narrow its search this summer for a hotel development company to finance and operate the buildings on the site and hopes to have the facility up and running within three years.
