Phonetek
05-11-2018, 05:51 PM
A friend of mine I have known for 35yrs. had come for a visit from Florida with an interesting proposal. He owns many businesses and real estates. He's a very wealthy man. Recently he acquired a former Walmart property in southern Florida somewhere near Naples. He came to me because he wants to turn it into a pool haul, club, restaurant and bowling center with 64 lanes. Including a pro shop for both bowling and serious billiards. He showed me the plans for it and it sounds awesome and looks promising. He wasn't even aware that I worked for a bowling center he just knew I was a serious bowler all my life.
Last night I invited him out last night to where I work and gave him the full tour. We sat up all night talking about the project. I gave him a lot of input and he's going to implement several of my ideas. They will be breaking ground in the next month starting the project. He expects completion within about a year. The hardest thing apparently is getting the liquor license and that's going to cause the most significant delay. The building is the easy part from what he says.
The lanes will be divided evenly between the north and south side of the building. It will be 32 wood lanes and 32 synthetic using AMF 8290 pinsetters and Cubica scorers throughout. A newer version of pinsetter than I work on now but all and all pretty similar. It will be all new equipment, no used stuff. He showed me the bowlers area and how they designed it and that's where my ideas came in. I hate the layout we have where I work, no place to put your towels or rosin bags unless you hang them on the control pad stand or go upstairs and leave them on the table. There isn't room for everyone to stow their gear so everyone is tripping on shoes and bags all the time. Also there isn't enough room for a team of 6 to sit comfortably.
He wants me to work on designing the bowlers area to be functional and comfortable and room for 6. He wants me to look at designs for decor because he doesn't want it to be cheezy but yet appeal to both serious bowlers, families and casual bowlers. House ball rack placement, counter layout, rental shoe racks etc. He's got over a dozen investors in this project and he's basically writing a blank check to get this done right. He came to me because knowing how much I was into bowling, he knew I bowled at a wide variety of houses. He wanted my input on why I liked some and not others. The fact that I work at one now was icing on the cake.
Now the kicker of the whole thing. Not only did he come to me for my input but when all is said and done he wants me to come down to Florida to run the bowling side of it. I was a little blind sided by this and it all depends on a lot of factors. I'm a husband and father of 3 and I have to keep that in mind. Do I really want to uproot my family and leave other family and friends behind and start fresh in 1,200 miles away? Do I have what it takes to run a bowling center myself? I handle everything at work except ordering liquor, food and other back office stuff. I just don't know if I'm ready for such a huge undertaking. I know he's going to make it worth my wild but it sounds like a huge responsibility.
I don't have to decide this right now. It did raise my wife's eyebrows and my kids as well but I'm not sure if they all have taken the big picture into account. We have a year to figure it out though. In the meantime I just have to keep coming up with ideas and put designs on paper. The other thing to really figure out is how to make this whole thing a success. I don't want to jump into it, move down there and have the place nose dive in 6 months. We all know how many centers are going under so we'd have to figure out how to make this place stand out and flourish. That is going to be the most difficult task of all.
Last night I invited him out last night to where I work and gave him the full tour. We sat up all night talking about the project. I gave him a lot of input and he's going to implement several of my ideas. They will be breaking ground in the next month starting the project. He expects completion within about a year. The hardest thing apparently is getting the liquor license and that's going to cause the most significant delay. The building is the easy part from what he says.
The lanes will be divided evenly between the north and south side of the building. It will be 32 wood lanes and 32 synthetic using AMF 8290 pinsetters and Cubica scorers throughout. A newer version of pinsetter than I work on now but all and all pretty similar. It will be all new equipment, no used stuff. He showed me the bowlers area and how they designed it and that's where my ideas came in. I hate the layout we have where I work, no place to put your towels or rosin bags unless you hang them on the control pad stand or go upstairs and leave them on the table. There isn't room for everyone to stow their gear so everyone is tripping on shoes and bags all the time. Also there isn't enough room for a team of 6 to sit comfortably.
He wants me to work on designing the bowlers area to be functional and comfortable and room for 6. He wants me to look at designs for decor because he doesn't want it to be cheezy but yet appeal to both serious bowlers, families and casual bowlers. House ball rack placement, counter layout, rental shoe racks etc. He's got over a dozen investors in this project and he's basically writing a blank check to get this done right. He came to me because knowing how much I was into bowling, he knew I bowled at a wide variety of houses. He wanted my input on why I liked some and not others. The fact that I work at one now was icing on the cake.
Now the kicker of the whole thing. Not only did he come to me for my input but when all is said and done he wants me to come down to Florida to run the bowling side of it. I was a little blind sided by this and it all depends on a lot of factors. I'm a husband and father of 3 and I have to keep that in mind. Do I really want to uproot my family and leave other family and friends behind and start fresh in 1,200 miles away? Do I have what it takes to run a bowling center myself? I handle everything at work except ordering liquor, food and other back office stuff. I just don't know if I'm ready for such a huge undertaking. I know he's going to make it worth my wild but it sounds like a huge responsibility.
I don't have to decide this right now. It did raise my wife's eyebrows and my kids as well but I'm not sure if they all have taken the big picture into account. We have a year to figure it out though. In the meantime I just have to keep coming up with ideas and put designs on paper. The other thing to really figure out is how to make this whole thing a success. I don't want to jump into it, move down there and have the place nose dive in 6 months. We all know how many centers are going under so we'd have to figure out how to make this place stand out and flourish. That is going to be the most difficult task of all.