Version 3.0 of the Fort Wayne Curling Club is coming!
From October 1, 2013 through January 18, 2014, the Fort Wayne Curling club made the exciting transition from curling on arena ice to curling in our own dedicated facility. This is the dream of every curling club curling on hockey ice and this transition was documented in detail in our first transition blog (located here).
The facility we built has been amazing. We have grown our club from 24 members to 90 members, 70 rookies and over 30 participants in our special needs curling program. We have progressed from curling 1 night a week to curling 5 nights a week. From 1 bonspiel a year to 4 bonspiels a year. From barely break even to comfortably solvent.
The facility does have some challenges though. We are limited to 3 sheets, we only have 2 bathrooms, we have social area of about 1100 sq. ft. (which can get crowded during a 100 person tournament), we face parking challenges with our neighbors who are similarly successful and finally, we are paying rent and gaining no equity. This means that our operating budget will only go up from here.
As our lease came up for renewal in December 2018, the board of directors looked at what the best decision is for the future of the club...renew the lease for 5 years, renew the lease for a shorter term, find somewhere else to lease, or find a property to buy. We had concerns about capacity 5 years down the road after another Olympic cycle but all indications were that renewing for 5 more years was the right thing to do....
And then the board identified a nearby property that had recently been vacated by Habitat for Humanity ReStore after they opened their own facility a few miles north on Lima Road. The building was not listed for sale but the board contacted the current owner and asked to see the property. We visited the property and "Boy oh Boy" was it an ideal fit for us.
A warehouse of 15,400 sq. ft. and an attached 1100 sq. ft. house with an attic and a basement. The warehouse was in excellent condition and much better insulated than our current location. While the house is quite dated and needs some work, it could easily function as our changing rooms and restrooms. There are 5 bathroom stalls (1 women's room, one 3-stall men's room and one unisex ADA compliant bathroom). And 50+ parking spots for our sole use.
We spoke with the owner about what we were looking to do and some of our challenges (not having money for a large down payment, needing to get title to file for a property tax exemption, not having a plan to fund the build out, timing of a move, needing time to sort all of this out, etc.). Any one of these challenges would have scared away most building owners. However, he liked our mission and especially that we had a special needs curling program, since he had a connection to someone with special needs. Surprisingly, he was willing to work with us. Not just work with us, but he turned down other cash offers, offered to finance the building for us, offered to require only 1.4% down and had the patience of a saint to wait the 5 months it took us to work through all of this.
But miracle of miracles, we closed on the building on October 15th and are now the owners of a building. We will complete our current season at our current location and open our new facility in September 2019, just in time for the 2019 End of Summerspiel bonspiel. If our fundraising is successful, getting us to our optimal buildout, this will be a 32 team bonspiel on 4 sheets of ice.
Now the fun work begins. We need to build a curling club yet again. We may be perhaps the only group of people to have built 2 curling clubs in a 5 year period.
Follow this blog for step by step details of our next journey.
P.S. A special shout out to Dave McDermott the biggest fan of our last blog. We hope you look forward to reading more about us crazy American curlers.
The facility we built has been amazing. We have grown our club from 24 members to 90 members, 70 rookies and over 30 participants in our special needs curling program. We have progressed from curling 1 night a week to curling 5 nights a week. From 1 bonspiel a year to 4 bonspiels a year. From barely break even to comfortably solvent.
The facility does have some challenges though. We are limited to 3 sheets, we only have 2 bathrooms, we have social area of about 1100 sq. ft. (which can get crowded during a 100 person tournament), we face parking challenges with our neighbors who are similarly successful and finally, we are paying rent and gaining no equity. This means that our operating budget will only go up from here.
As our lease came up for renewal in December 2018, the board of directors looked at what the best decision is for the future of the club...renew the lease for 5 years, renew the lease for a shorter term, find somewhere else to lease, or find a property to buy. We had concerns about capacity 5 years down the road after another Olympic cycle but all indications were that renewing for 5 more years was the right thing to do....
And then the board identified a nearby property that had recently been vacated by Habitat for Humanity ReStore after they opened their own facility a few miles north on Lima Road. The building was not listed for sale but the board contacted the current owner and asked to see the property. We visited the property and "Boy oh Boy" was it an ideal fit for us.
A warehouse of 15,400 sq. ft. and an attached 1100 sq. ft. house with an attic and a basement. The warehouse was in excellent condition and much better insulated than our current location. While the house is quite dated and needs some work, it could easily function as our changing rooms and restrooms. There are 5 bathroom stalls (1 women's room, one 3-stall men's room and one unisex ADA compliant bathroom). And 50+ parking spots for our sole use.
We spoke with the owner about what we were looking to do and some of our challenges (not having money for a large down payment, needing to get title to file for a property tax exemption, not having a plan to fund the build out, timing of a move, needing time to sort all of this out, etc.). Any one of these challenges would have scared away most building owners. However, he liked our mission and especially that we had a special needs curling program, since he had a connection to someone with special needs. Surprisingly, he was willing to work with us. Not just work with us, but he turned down other cash offers, offered to finance the building for us, offered to require only 1.4% down and had the patience of a saint to wait the 5 months it took us to work through all of this.
But miracle of miracles, we closed on the building on October 15th and are now the owners of a building. We will complete our current season at our current location and open our new facility in September 2019, just in time for the 2019 End of Summerspiel bonspiel. If our fundraising is successful, getting us to our optimal buildout, this will be a 32 team bonspiel on 4 sheets of ice.
Now the fun work begins. We need to build a curling club yet again. We may be perhaps the only group of people to have built 2 curling clubs in a 5 year period.
Follow this blog for step by step details of our next journey.
P.S. A special shout out to Dave McDermott the biggest fan of our last blog. We hope you look forward to reading more about us crazy American curlers.
Fantastic news. So happy for the Fort Wayne Curling Club. I look forward to playing at the current facility a couple more times and then at the new club.
ReplyDeleteAwesome. Don't know who this is but thanks for the support by playing in our spiels. We look forward to hosting you in the new facility.
DeleteCongrats Craig! You, Greg and the boys are the most dedicated curlers I know. Should be an exciting summer!
ReplyDelete