BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The City of Buffalo could be one step closer to signing a deal to help spark waterfront development.

On Wednesday, the City of Memphis signed a 20-year lease with Bass Pro, which is expected to bring in $20 million in lease payments alone to the Tennessee city, while also creating 1,000 jobs.

With that deal out of the way, officials with the Erie County Harbor Development Corporation are hoping that a deal will be signed in 60 days to bring Bass Pro to Buffalo.

Mayor Byron Brown said the development corporation is working closely with Bass Pro.

"Members of the board of the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation are negotiating with Bass Pro now. Hopefully those negotiations go well. We just recently concluded the state environmental quality review process, once that environmental review process is completed then contracts can be negotiated. We're in the contract negotiation phase now. Hopefully it goes well and Bass Pro will come to Buffalo."

Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation President Thomas P. Dee added that everything is going according to plan.

"We're looking within the next 60 days to sign the lease. That's always been our plan. We've sent that to them, they've had it for probably over a month now and our attorneys are talking to their attorneys and that's exactly the way the process works and so there's no surprise here. So, they have the lease, they're working on it and that's exactly what we could expect."

Construction on the foundation has already begun in preparation for any possible deal.