If Bass Pro Shops is lured to the former Bethlehem Steel No. 2 Machine Shop, what should be built around it and what other old Steel buildings should be saved?

Six years after introducing gambling as the economic driver to redevelop the Bethlehem Steel plant, Las Vegas Sands is back at the drawing board to draft a fresh vision for the next phase of development.

Sands, owner of the Bethlehem casino, has embarked on a master plan designed to take a bird's-eye view of the 126-acre tract in south Bethlehem where the casino spurred development of a hotel, outlet shopping center and concert hall on one end and the SteelStacks campus at the other.

Jeff Gural, a New York developer who is a principal in BethWorks Now, which owns the property with the Sands, said any plans to develop the site have been put on hold until the plan is finished.

"They're working on it as we speak," said Gural, who recently released plans for a $1 billion casino at his Meadowlands Racetrack in New Jersey. "Rather than just jump in and do this piece by piece, there's an effort to identify a plan to develop the entire property. [Sands is] driving this bus. We're waiting for the master plan before we move forward."

The property now draws millions of visitors every year, but the Great Recession stalled plans for much of the rest of the site the past several years. Last year, Las Vegas Sands considered selling off the property, but more recently, casino and city leaders have started to lay the groundwork for more development that is expected to have a Bass Pro Shops as the anchor.

Still vacant are landmark structures: the No. 2 Machine Shop once touted as among the nation's longest industrial buildings; High House, where battleship guns were made; and the Steel General Office Building, where the company once housed its world headquarters.

cComments

• Oh come on! We all know that the Bass Pro Shop should be located at 600 Hamilton Street!

FLEECIFICATION

AT 8:58 PM JUNE 09, 2015

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The master plan could give the community a peek into the future of the site and give assurances to local officials that the world's largest casino company hasn't forgotten about Bethlehem while it works on more lucrative projects in places like Macau and Singapore.

The Sands is working on a market feasibility study, which could be completed as early as the year's end. Then, the work of matching a store, restaurant or other enterprise with the buildings would begin. In the past couple of years, developers have been courting Bass Pro Shops, a hotel and convention center and craft breweries for the property. The only location that has been discussed is No. 2 Machine Shop, which would house Bass Pro Shops.

Las Vegas Sands spokesman Ron Reese, who declined to discuss details of the master plan, said the company has proved it's committed to the property and the Lehigh Valley.

"We're constantly looking at all of our properties for new and unique concepts to make them more interesting, dynamic places," Reese said. "I don't think it's prudent to discuss timelines and specific concepts until we are ready to do it in a public way. Until all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed, we prefer not to talk about it."

A new master plan comes at a pivotal time for Sands in Bethlehem, with new competition on the horizon. Hard Rock International and the Meadowlands Racetrack last week unveiled plans for a $1 billion casino at the East Rutherford, N.J., horse-racing complex. A Meadowlands casino is not a certainty, but state legislators have introduced a bill that in November would give voters a chance to end the 37-year ban on gambling outside Atlantic City.

The proposed development poses competition for an already struggling Atlantic City gambling market and the Sands, which enjoys a steady flow of buses from New York City and northern New Jersey.

In addition, New York will open three casinos upstate soon, and as many as three in New York City in seven years. Analysts have said that Sands' best hope to withstand the new threat is to become a destination resort that goes well beyond gambling.

The $800 million casino debuted in Bethlehem in May 2009 with more than 3,000 slot machines and a handful of restaurants. It has since grown to include a 302-room hotel, an outlet mall, a concert venue and the state's most lucrative table games room, with 206 table games such as roulette, blackjack and craps.

Meanwhile, local nonprofits have partnered with the Sands to develop SteelStacks, which includes a visitors center built in the oldest Steel building left standing in addition to the PBS39 building, ArtsQuest Center and Levitt Pavilion at the foot of the blast furnaces.

But one of the major changes to have occurred since then is the city's winning the City Revitalization and Improvement Zone, a watered-down version of the tax incentive program that is driving Allentown's $1 billion rebirth.

Nearly a quarter of the 130-acre zone covers property owned by Sands Retail LLC, including the No. 2 Machine Shop. The Sands zone is expected to generate $106 million of development, according to the CRIZ application.

The Sands has some incentive to get at least some of the projects done within the next five years. That's when another special taxing zone, tax increment financing, expires. The zone diverts county, school and city property taxes to pay for infrastructure improvements. The city has been able to use that tax money — primarily paid on the casino building — to develop plazas at SteelStacks, the visitors center and the Hoover Mason Trestle, an elevated walkway scheduled to be completed by the end of the month.

Mayor Robert Donchez said he is hoping the master plan includes residential development and destinations, such as Bass Pro Shops. Donchez said the deal for Bass Pro Shops, courted for the site two years ago, is progressing.

The mayor said Bass Pro Shops is a good choice not only because of the eventual tax dollars it would bring but because of the estimated 2 million visitors it is expected to attract.

The Sands tract "has to become more of a destination to offset any possible loss of casino business to the Meadowlands," Donchez said.

Recasting history

These former Bethlehem Steel landmarks remain undeveloped. A new master plan will decide what to do with them.

• No. 2 Machine Shop: Opened in 1890, it was once the largest machine shop in the world, at more than a third of a mile long.

• The Iron Foundry: Constructed with 30-foot-high stone walls, the 1868 building was first used to make steel rails.

• High House: Built in 1889, it was used to heat-treat battleship gun barrels.

• Riggers Welfare Building: The 1910 building where workers used chains to hoist their change of clothes to the ceiling in baskets.

• Steel General Office Building: Opened in 1916, it served as Bethlehem Steel's world headquarters for more than half a century.