COMMENTS I’VE POSTED
- Posted to Facebook here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here —
Albuquerque Indoor Karting
Friday. May 3, 2019 at 1:11 PMPlease Read and share!
Why is it so hard for businesses to survive in Albuquerque?
Roughly 12 years ago Albuquerque Indoor Karting opened its doors by a small group of friends and family some of which invested their life savings to bring a new attraction to Albuquerque. Since then many forms of entertainment have entered the Albuquerque area. In an effort to stay competitive with other forms of entertainment and meet customer requests, the investment group decided to reinvest in the business by adding a new restaurant, new go karts, and sand volleyball courts. The plan was to add a beer and wine license to the restaurant which is where everything started going wrong. First of all, the process to get a beer and wine license was extremely cumbersome with many different points of contact who often do not communicate with each other and then you have to complete the process two times, one for the State of New Mexico and the other for the City of Albuquerque. The state of NM process was delayed months before we ever received a response, but after a little bit of grief from the state we were able to get through the state when we explained we were not trying to be a “night club” we are a family entertainment center with a restaurant.
After getting through the State you go on to the City of Albuquerque. It amazed me that you could not run these processes in parallel. Each City and State process is estimated to take 90 days to six months total. It could take 6 months just to get a beer and wine license…that is sad, talk about bureaucracy. Of course each city and state process requires independent permitting fees. So far we have spent nearly $10K just getting through the permitting process only to be asked to spend more. It seems like we fix one thing then they ask us to fix something else, the list never ends, and problem is you never see the list. This is all due to the fact that we relocated our volleyball courts and added one court the city is asking us to make nearly $50K worth of sidewalk repairs. The sidewalks and parking lot have never been issues in all the time we have operated. The city would like us to spend money on something that would literally add zero value to our business after we already invested millions of dollars in the facility which prior to our ownership was a haven for drug use, crime and an eye sore. Today, it is a family friendly place that has seen hundreds of thousands of customers. In the last year alone we have invested roughly $100K adding a restaurant and relocating the volleyball courts, now they want us to spend more just to upgrade the sidewalks. The City of Albuquerque just worked and is working on a large portion of Copper road between San Mateo and Washington and they are requesting we upgrade a portion of the sidewalk they just worked on literally a couple months ago. Further, we housed heavy equipment for months on our parking lot which resulted in large pot holes, divots and their trash all over our facility and the City was called on several occasions and nothing was ever done. No one ever contacted ABQ Indoor Karting to ask if it was ok.
As a business owner in Albuquerque I have constantly seen the city increase its permit requirements. For example, when we first opened we only had to have one permit for your burglary alarm so the city could collect their fees. Now you have to have a permit for your fire and burglar alarm separately so the city can collect two permit fees. It is constantly some new cost, and the old costs don’t go away. After 12 years of operation our organization has paid almost ONE MILLION dollars in just sales taxes and property taxes. I obviously do not expect the city or state to invest $1M back into our area, but at least take care of the sidewalks. Over this time we have employed over 15 employees at any given time generating payroll taxes and jobs. With our improvements we would like to add more employees, but now that is also in jeopardy. Earlier this year the city of Albuquerque made a deal with Top Golf (based out of Texas) to come in with tax incentives. I am all for new entertainment coming to Albuquerque, but they should have to do it of their own investment just the way the hard-working business owners have to do. Now, have to compete with Top Golf for entertainment dollars while they are subsidized, and we have to improve sidewalks and everything else on our own dime. This does not seem like fair capitalism.
We are not getting rich off this business, in fact all the investors/owners of AIK, have full time jobs. We keep trucking because we love our community and want to provide something different and exciting and give back.
As a business owner its never good when you start wondering if this is all worth it . . . well that is where we are today.
LISTENING / READING / WATCHING
- Midnight’s Edge [YouTube] — Alien – The Past and Future of the franchise (Talking Horror #02)
- Mr. H Reviews [YouTube] — Alien TV Series – The Facts & The Fiction With The Disney Fox Merger
- Vice — Motherboard: Inside the World of the ‘Bitcoin Carnivores’ by Jordan Pearson
- BreakPoint — Responding to “Green Politics” – Part 5: Sun May be Causing Global Warming – Seriously? by S. Michael Craven
- Monster Hunter Nation [MHN] by Larry Correia —
- Overkill — White Devil Armory
- KUPT 29 TV [Heroes & Icons (H&I) affiliate for Albuquerque, New Mexico] —
- Analog Science Fiction and Fact, September / October 2018 — pp. 146-155: “Black Shores” by Darren Speegle
- Colion Noir [YouTube] — Kamala Harris: If Elected I Will Take Gun Dealers’ Licenses Away with Executive Action
Leave a Reply