After casting some doubt early Tuesday, Gov. David A. Paterson now says don’t fret about Bass Pro. When the governor talked to a Buffalo radio station, he left some people wondering whether Bass Pro will ever open a store on the waterfront.

Paterson was speaking of the state’s dire finances and how he wants an adequate return from the state’s efforts to promote business.

In that context, he said, “The possibility of Bass Pro coming to downtown Buffalo is a little bleaker than it was.”

But the forces arranging the Canal Side development project soon found Paterson’s ear. And at an Albany news conference later in the morning, the governor said, essentially, never mind.

He explained that the tone of the question he faced on WBEN radio made it appear that Bass Pro’s arrival was in jeopardy. So he needed to revise his remarks.

“I’m advised by the Empire State Development Corp. that the Bass Pro project is still on, and there is a strong belief that it actually can work,” he said.

“The reaction from the people interviewing me on WBEN today was that it was taking a turn for the worse, and obviously, our budget difficulties are not helping. But we’re assured that this project is a lot further from over than the people at WBEN thought it was.”

To drive the point home, he circulated a statement saying: “While this is no doubt a difficult time for the state, we remain fully committed to the Canal Side project.”

But the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression has cast a shadow over everything, including Buffalo’s waterfront project.

Wouldn’t that somehow affect Bass Pro, too?

“I am very suspicious about it, to be very frank with you,” Arun K. Jain, a professor of marketing at the University at Buffalo, said when asked about the certainty of Bass Pro’s pursuing a Buffalo store in the current economy.

“I just don’t see how this economy can support them,” he said. “Most of the products they are going to be offering are being sold by others in the area. They are going to have more guns than the others? It’s not like there is a gaping need for a store like a Bass Pro here.”

The appeal of a Bass Pro selling boats and fishing gear at Lake Erie’s edge does not change his opinion. A boat, he says, is an extravagance in an economy when people are not buying cars.

“I am very leery about this whole move. As a Buffalonian, I hate to talk in these terms,” Jain said. “But I can see the handwriting on the wall. In this economy, people are not inclined to go out and spend the money.”

A Bass Pro spokesman says that the economy has not hurt the company and that it’s in full throttle on developing a store for Buffalo.

“We are doing very well,” spokesman Larry L. Whiteley said. “We just opened our Spring Fishing Classic. This weekend, the stores were absolutely packed. Sales were wonderful.”

He said that each store not affected by a winter storm will draw 150,000 to 200,000 customers over a 10-day period. Some shoppers have been quizzed about their willingness to spend.

“We asked them questions about the economy,” Whiteley said. “They said, ‘Yeah, the economy is tough.’ But they still want to go hunting, they still want to go camping, they still want to go fishing.”

A final agreement with Bass Pro cannot be signed until an environmental review has been completed. Bass Pro staff members are involved in that work, said Jordan A. Levy, chairman of Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp.

“I can’t tell you what Bass Pro thinks,” Levy said Tuesday. “I can tell you that the more that we, as a community, continue to question Bass Pro’s motives and their desire to locate in Canal Side-Buffalo, the greater the risk is that they will move in another direction.”

The design of Canal Side, a $315 million undertaking, includes a Great Lakes-themed underground museum, stores, restaurants and a public green flush with water features. It is financed by private and public money, including about $21 million the state set aside years ago for the never-built Adelphia Communications headquarters.

Under the latest timetable, Memorial Auditorium would be demolished by late spring, and the first phase of Canal Side, which includes the public improvements, the Bass Pro store and other retail uses, would debut by Memorial Day 2011.

“We are looking at this as a marathon and not a sprint,” said Eric L. Recoon, Benderson Development Co.’s vice president of development and leasing, who is trying to draw retail tenants.

He acknowledged that the economy has become a factor for everyone.

“It is a mixed-use project,” Recoon said, “and one that we feel over the long haul will rise above the cyclical issues that we are in the midst of now.”

Tom Precious of The News Albany Bureau contributed to this report.