http://www.omaha.com/article/20100225/MONEY/702259865
Mike Zabawa is energized, not discouraged, after four years of trying to bring what he says is a new concept in family-oriented entertainment to Omaha.
He and his team so far have no investors on board, no developer lined up, no government-guaranteed bank loan in hand, no general manager hired or leases signed.
Zabawa, like many small-business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs over the last couple of years, has confronted the realities of the 2008 financial collapse and the worst recession since the 1930s.
And he has faced related challenges: a development group that dropped his project, the failure of a similar venture in Elkhorn, would-be investors who want bankers to show interest first and bankers who are waiting for investors to put up their money.
Yet Zabawa is convinced that “The V” — an entertainment center anchored by bowling lanes in an innovative V-shaped design — will be a financial success. If built, he said, it would fill a gap in the amusement field and could become a chain of perhaps a half-dozen such centers in and around Nebraska that would employ hundreds of people.
He said Thunder Alley, an 80,000-square-foot entertainment center in the Elkhorn area that closed suddenly last June, differed from Zabawa's project.
Built from the ground up, it was too far from Omaha's population core, Merola said. It also was too big and included things like a go-kart track that were expensive to operate and didn't generate enough revenue, he said. And with 40 bowling lanes, Thunder Alley relied too much on a traditional clientele that didn't spend on other types of entertainment, Merola said.
“Greater leverage, greater risk. You had a very significant real estate budget that towered over the actual operating budget. That puts a tremendous burden on any project.”
Merola said most such projects take about four years to complete, so Zabawa is on track, especially given the past 18 months of financial turmoil.