Benny’s Hangar a ‘kids-gone-wild dream’
An old Christchurch hangar has been converted into a paradise for thrillseekers and game players, but there’s just one hurdle to leap before it opens to the public — raising more than half a million dollars.
Benny’s Hangar, set in an old Wigram aircraft building, is an indoor entertainment venue with nearly every activity children – and big kids could wish for.
The enormous 1800m² space, with a 400m² mezzanine floor, hosts an escape park, a pump track, archery, axe throwing, a baseball batting cage, paintball, a halfpipe, 18-hole mini-golf, basketball, golf, car and jet ski simulators, and the world’s biggest skateboard, “unofficially”, at 18.5m, creator and owner Ben Scott says.
“It’s a crazy spot. It’s like a -kids-gone-wild dream.”
A bar and cafe will also be included. But while the inside looked almost ready for the big reveal, it was only 80% there, he said.
“It’s hit a hurdle … that hurdle is finances, funding the last part of it. We can’t just open the door as is. We need to finish the project.”
Scott has a goal to raise $750,000 on PledgeMe by May 22, so the hangar can become a venue “built for the community, by the community”.
“I could get some big investors on board, which would be great, but having something like this, you have a lot more buy-in.”
He said that if 17,000 people pledged $50 each to the business, the public would have about a 33% shareholding of the company.
“We can do kickbacks to different community groups — high tea and archery for retirement villages ... sponsor local clubs and schools, because it’s owned by the community.”
Scott originally set out to open an indoor motocross track, only to discover that the noise from the motorbikes – and filling a warehouse with dirt – wasn’t something landlords were willing to sign up to.
“I stumbled across the hangar, and it already had resource consent for kids.”
He couldn’t give up the opportunity, and instead took a sideways step in extending the consent for all ages, and deciding to do something about the lack of indoor entertainment spaces in west Christchurch.
“Indoor motocross can come later down the track,” he said.
Drawing what he envisaged in the large space for architects and engineers was a challenge, though. “I couldn’t design it.”
So he thought outside the box.
“I bought a Nintendo Switch and downloaded Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, then designed the skate park and building on that, and took it to [the architect and engineers] so they could draw the plans that way.
“It was the easiest way to explain it to them, because I couldn’t draw a skate park.”
Scott’s first venture was Benny’s Barber Shop 10 years ago. He said that if he completed the dream of opening an indoor motocross track, he planned to connect his three ventures with a free bus for users.
He said he’d have the bus instead of spending $50,000 annually on a billboard – the money would pay for drivers and the roving advertisement on a vehicle.
“They’re wild ideas, but they actually start to make sense when you break them down.”
He hopes Benny’s Hangar will be open by the July school holidays, and intends to have an entry price of $40 for a two-hour session, allowing entrants to do one, some or all the activities in the hangar.
If he was unable to raise the funds, he said he would “play it by ear”.
“It’s the first of many projects I want to do.”