Proclaiming it a "done" deal, Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer joined local waterfront planners Wednesday to unveil revised plans for a Buffalo Bass Pro store.

"You know in your blood when a deal is going to happen," Spitzer said. "This is real. This is happening. This is done."

The updated plans call for a new Bass Pro Outdoor World store to be built on the site where Memorial Auditorium stands . The retailer envisions a store resembling an Erie Canal-era wharf terminal, ranging in size from 1 5 0,000 to 200,000 square feet.

The store is expected to cost at least $60 million to construct.

"Bass Pro isn’t going to change its mind," said Bass Pro President Jim Hagale. "We want to be there, or we would have thrown in the towel a long time ago."

The latest Bass Pro plans for Buffalo are outlined in a new, nonbinding agreement between the retailer and the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp.

Under its terms , the state will give the retailer a $35 million incentive package to defray construction costs. In return, Bass Pro will be obligated to pay $600,000 a year in rent over the life of the 49-year lease, or a total of $29.4 million.

The store also is expected to generate at least $4 million in sales tax revenue per year.

Larry Quinn, harbor panel vice chairman and chief negotiator on the Bass Pro project, said while the agreement is not binding, he is not worried the retailer will back out.

"This feels completely different than the agreement we announced for the Central Wharf site or the [memorandum of understanding] announced in 2004," Quinn said. "They came to us and said they wanted to build a big, major market store on the Aud site. They are driving this, and I believe they will follow through."

Hagale admitted reaching the new deal has not been easy — or fast. "This hasn’t been without heartburn," he said. "But as frustrating as it’s been for everybody involved, we’re going to be able to build a store that’s a lot more dynamic. We’re extremely excited."

Quinn noted that the state can’t enter into a final, binding agreement for the project until the Aud site is cleared and declared free of environmental hazards. "It can’t legally go hard until the environmental stuff is dealt with, that’s a state requirement, not a Bass Pro demand," he said.

The redrawn plan — the third to be floated in the past four years — positions the giant sporting goods store as the anchor for Canal Side, a mixed-use development that will encompass nearly 20 acres around and including the historic Erie Canal Harbor site.

Jordan Levy, chairman of the harbor development panel, emphasized that Bass Pro is key to the project, but he said the larger $300 million redevelopment effort will flesh out the neighborhood with another half million square feet of new retailing, entertainment venues, housing and office space.

"Bass Pro is the anchor tenant, but this is not the Bass Pro project. This is the Canal Side project," Levy said. "This will change how people look at Buffalo."

The key to Canal Side will be water.

The redrawn blueprint includes a replica of the original Erie Canal, which is buried beneath the Aud, as well as a recreated Hamburg Street/Ohio Street canal on the neighboring Gen. Donovan State Office Building site. Plans also include an extension of the rewatered Commercial Slip and Prime Slip.

"What we have now is a ‘water plan,’ " Quinn said. "Water is the uniting element for all of Canal Side." Cobblestone streets and pathways would crisscross the Donovan and Aud blocks, creating new routes for pedestrians and vehicles.

The site plan also includes an Erie Canal Museum, across Scott Street from the historic site, where the rear of the Aud now stands. A small hotel would be located on a portion of what is now a surface parking lot for Marine Drive Apartments.

The plan creates parking for more than 2,500 vehicles, including 1,500 spots under the new Bass Pro store, and additional slots in ramps that will be integrated into new, mixed-use buildings. The only surface parking contemplated is a small, cobblestone-paved lot near the foot of Main Street, tucked under the Skyway.

Early reviews from Tim Tielman, leader of the Campaign for Greater Buffalo and arguably the most outspoken opponent of an earlier plan to locate Bass Pro on the historic Central Wharf site, are generally positive.

"I’m going to focus on what’s in the boundaries of the historic district, and I’m happy Bass Pro is now outside the boundaries," he said. But he vowed to monitor the plan as it moves through the review and permit process.

The redrawn plan also calls for completion of the 2004 master plan for the historic Erie Canal site. Todd Benderson of Benderson Development Co., the firm in charge of turning Canal Side plans into a bustling urban district, said the reworked design will make it easier to find tenants.

"We feel this version of the plan is much better, much more unified," Benderson said. "This project has absolutely caught a bunch of retailers’ eyes. And now that it’s more concrete, we will be in a position to sign tenants."

Bass Pro’s Hagale says the retailer plans to build a "different kind of store." The structure will be less of a "big box" and more of a tower.

"There’ll be a lot of vertical, a lot of cubic feet of space and multiple levels on a smaller footprint," he said.

He anticipates it will have a multipeaked roofline that is likely to surpass the height of the Aud.

"It will rise up from the site, acting like a beacon, a billboard for Canal Side and our store. It will be dramatic," Hagale said.

Initial environmental contracts, leading to demolition of the Aud and Donovan Building, were issued in September. Under a preliminary timetable, both sites will be shovel-ready in mid-2009, opening the door to the start of Bass Pro construction.

Hagale said the earliest the store could debut is mid-2010.

slinstedt@buffnews.com