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SCARBOROUGH — Construction is on schedule at The Gateway in Scarborough, a 70-acre commercial complex at Maine Turnpike Exit 42 where Cabela’s plans to open its retail store.

Cabela’s, the nation’s leading direct marketer of hunting, fishing, camping and other outdoor merchandise, will be located in the 130,000-square-foot building nearest the turnpike.

The company has begun advertising managerial positions in Scarborough on its Web site, www.cabelas.com, along with full-time and part-time hourly wage jobs.

Also visible from the turnpike are three smaller buildings, comprising 48,000 square feet, that will house a number of local and national restaurants and other retail operations.

Harvey Rosenfeld, director of Scarborough Economic Development, which developed the Haigis Parkway area where the project is located, said Cabela’s is set to open in mid-May.

“The other retail facilities are going up pretty quickly,” Rosenfeld said. “There are a lot of prospective tenants for the site.”

Tony Armstrong, president of Northeast Properties, the real estate broker for the project, said Wednesday he has been told Cabela’s plans to open on May 16, a Friday. Armstrong said tenants of the smaller buildings also aim to open their doors on that date.

“There’s going to be a massive turnout,” he said. “I’ve heard that Cabela’s has up to 30,000 people at some of these store openings.”

Cabela’s press office did not return several phone calls seeking comment.

Armstrong said the tenants in the buildings near Cabela’s include Portland Pie, a pizza restaurant and pub; Henry VIII’s Cutlery, a roast beef sandwich shop; Freaky Bean coffee; Haven’s Chocolates; Art Trends Gallery and Framing; The Kitchen and Cork, which offers kitchen accessories and appliances; and Siam Garden, a Thai restaurant that operates under other names in Gorham, Windham and Bar Harbor.

Famous Dave’s Barbecue, a national chain restaurant, will be in another free-standing building.

“We’ve been working with other retailers and restaurant people and should be announcing some other major leases soon,” Armstrong said. When it approved a contract zoning application in 2006 that enabled Cabela’s to move forward, the Scarborough Town Council directed developers to seek out Maine businesses as tenants in the complex.

“I think we’ve done a pretty good job at that,” Armstrong said. “In the end there will be some national names there I’m sure, but at this point a large part of it has been local businesses.” Gene Beaudoin of New England Expedition LLC, which developed the project at Haigis Parkway and Payne Road, said he also expects a mid-May opening by Cabela’s.

Beaudoin noted that many national retailers have delayed or abandoned expansion plans because of poor economic conditions. He said the Scarborough project was buffered from that trend by the town’s insistence on attracting Maine businesses.

“It was something we would have liked to have done anyhow,” Beaudoin said, “but it turned out to be really helpful.”

Cabela’s itself has been affected by the national retail downturn. Last week the company announced it was retreating from its plans to open seven stores this year. It now plans to open only two – in Scarborough and Rapid City, S.D. – and two more in 2009, in Montana and New Jersey.

The announcement followed a disappointing fourth-quarter earnings report from Cabela’s, a publicly traded company headquartered in Nebraska. Cabela’s announced it would scale back its retail expansion and focus instead this year on improving the profitability of its existing stores.

Founded in 1961, the company has 26 retail stores...