FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) – New England’s first Bass Pro Shops sporting goods store is under construction next to Gillette Stadium, as the anchor tenant in a $500 million project led by unlikely developers who know more about running a football team than hunting or fishing.

“We’re not outdoors people,” Jonathan Kraft, president of The Kraft Group, said Thursday from an impromptu construction site stage also occupied by four New England Patriots cheerleaders and Gov. Deval Patrick.

With the stadium looming in the distance, construction crews went about their work as a banner was unfurled to reveal a store sign reading, “Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World.”

It’s a retail name that Jonathan Kraft and his father, Kraft Group chairman and CEO Robert Kraft, were unfamiliar with until a few years ago, when they pondered how to get maximum year-round value from 20,000 parking spaces and 700 acres of Kraft-owned land that surround Gillette Stadium in suburban Foxborough. Aside from football season and preseason training camp, the investments see little use.

Although they lack real estate expertise, the Patriots owners decided to develop a retail-entertainment complex called Patriot Place to play off the popularity of their NFL team, which has won three Super Bowls this decade. Consultants told them Bass Pro Shops would be an ideal fit as an anchor tenant, given the reputation the Springfield, Mo.-based chain has built for drawing shoppers who sometimes travel hundreds of miles to visit the stores.

“We had never heard of Bass Pro Shops, so we found that very hard to believe that there could be something out there that unique that we had never heard of,” Jonathan Kraft told reporters and dignitaries at a ceremony to provide a sneak peek of the store, due to open Nov. 15.

After the Krafts toured a couple of the more than 40 Bass Pro stores in North America, they were “absolutely blown away” by the indoor waterfalls, aquariums, and archery ranges, Jonathan Kraft said.

“It’s just an amazing, amazing place, and right away, we got it,” he said.

Bass Pro Shops is expected to be the biggest draw at Patriot Place, a development expected to eventually total 80 stores and restaurants, including such retail names as Staples and Circuit City. First-phase stores such as Bass Pro Shops are scheduled to open in mid-November in time for the holiday shopping season, with the second phase to open a year later. The development will also include a Patriots museum, movie theaters and a four-star hotel, all within sight of 68,756-seat Gillette Stadium.

The privately held Kraft Group, which also has interests in ventures including paper products, plans to invest $350 million in Patriot Place, with retail tenants pitching in about $150 million more.

“We are going to go beyond what we originally planned, and make this the No. 1 destination development spot in New England,” Robert Kraft said.

The Krafts hope to eventually draw 40,000 visitors per day to Patriot Place, with many coming to shop and explore Bass Pro Shops’ 150,000-square feet of retail space – the equivalent of more than three football fields.

The store is to include an idoor waterfall, aquarium, and wildlife dioramas, and a two-story log-and-timber fly fishing department. The store also will include a boat showroom, and will hire 250 to 300 employees.

Patrick said he joined Thursday’s event to support a project he called important for the state’s economic development.

As for the products sold at Bass Pro Sports, the governor conceded he’s no outdoorsman, like the Krafts.

“I don’t do all the stuff that is supported by the products you sell, but I look forward to learning about some of the stuff, and enjoying some of the sports that you support, and visiting this facility once it is up and running, together with the thousands of others who will make this a destination here in Massachusetts,” the Democrat said.

The store will be the first New England for Bass Pro Shops, whose closest stores are in Auburn, N.Y and Harrisburg, Pa. Most of the 35-year-old chain’s stores are in the South and Midwest.

AP-ES-08-02-07 1827EDT