EAST HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – Plans are under way for a giant outdoor superstore at Rentschler Field in East Hartford that is predicted to become one of the top tourist attractions in Connecticut.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell announced Wednesday that the Connecticut Development Authority has approved nearly $10 million in state bond funds to help finance construction of the Cabela’s store, the first in New England. The massive, nearly 200,000 square-foot store will create an estimated 350 jobs and is scheduled to open next year.

The state is investing $12 million to design and build roads and other infrastructure at the Rentschler site. Plans also call for housing, office space, research and development jobs, and additional retail and entertainment venues. The state ultimately hopes 4,000 jobs will be created on the 600-acre former airfield.

The store sells merchandise for hunting, fishing, camping and other outdoor activities. It will include a restaurant with game meat on the menu, a laser shooting range, a 50,000 gallon fish tank, a fudge shop, 450 specimens of taxidermy, outdoor ponds, a natural history museum and a 30-foot-tall indoor mountain.

The East Hartford Cabela’s is expected to draw 3.5 million people each year. The average shopper spends three-and-a-half hours and $800 in the store, he said.

“This is a giant step forward for the economic future of East Hartford and Connecticut as a whole,” said East Hartford Mayor Melody Currey during a morning news conference at the University of Connecticut football stadium at Rentschler. The store will be located behind the stadium.

Rell said she and her husband visited a Cabela’s in Pennsylvania last year. “It isn’t just a store, it’s a shopping experience,” she said.

Officials with the Sidney, Neb.-based chain say the store is expected to draw people from all over the region. More than half of the customers at its 15 other stores come from more than 100 miles away.

“We truly believe once this store opens it will become one of the top tourist attractions in Connecticut,” said Michael Callahan, Cabela’s senior vice president for retail operations and marketing. Cabela’s officials likened the interest in the hunting, fishing and outdoor gear firm to Ikea, the popular furniture retailer.

James Powell, a spokesman for Cabela’s, said 2,000 people recently waited outside to be the first shoppers at the new Cabela’s in Glendale, Ariz.