Vol. VI, No 4, August/September 2006

In this issue

1. Editor's corner
2. Time means more than money
3. State of the Industry Report, is it really so?
4. Coffee, café, play, Mommy and me
5. Developing children's play
6. Away-from-home leisure competition increasing
7. Taming the thrills attracts families
8. Thematic food
9. Miniature golf factoid
10. Construction cost escalation continues
11. The Stinger Report now free
12. First T-REX Café opens
13. 2007 Foundation Entertainment University dates and locations set
14. In the news
15. Retail developers become restaurant and entertainment operators
16. Update on summer teenage labor force participation
17. New projects

[ Index of Previous eNewsletters ]

Editor's corner

We were fortunate to be able to publish the June-July issue of this eNewsletter early. Things haven't gone quite as well with this August-September issue. We're a little on the late side. For some reason, when it's summer vacation time, we always get swamped with work. This summer has been our busiest. But another way to look at things is that 1 early publication + 1 late publication averages out that we have been on time. One bonus of being a little late with this issue is that it has allowed us to make this our biggest issue ever. We have also increased the number of links where you can find additional information, including links to several videos.

Our work and projects have been evolving in a number of directions. One direction is with small cafes for at-home moms. Another is in eatertainment facilities, which we really see as the future for family entertainment centers. And on a larger scale, we are working on mixed-use projects, including retail-tainment malls and shopping centers, which allow me to combine my personal experience and expertise with shopping center and mall development with our expertise with family and children's entertainment and leisure projects. Before our company moved into the location-based family and children's leisure and educational fields, I spent about 15 years developing and managing shopping centers and malls. I am still a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers, retain its designation of CSM (Certified Shopping Center Manager) and am a long-time member of the Urban Land Institute. We are also applying our expertise with the design of family and children's facilities to resorts.

You'll read about at-home moms' cafes, retail-tainment and eatertainment in a number of the articles in this issue. Two of our newest clients have been resorts. Information on them is at the end of the eNewsletter. In this issue, we're also taking a look at leisure time, the increasing competition for away-from-home entertainment and the newest themed restaurant concept, T-REX, plus much more.

We hope you enjoy this issue and maybe even learn something from it. And as always, we welcome your comments and suggestions.

Randy White
Editore-mail

Time means more than money

We each get the same 24 hours a day, but how we spend them is increasingly different. It may come as a shock, but recent studies show that Americans have more leisure time than they once did. How much more, though, varies more than it used to, depending on your educational level, income and gender. In fact, if you're a woman with children, you probably want to give some researchers a swift kick in the tuchus.

New studies underscore an important point for location-based entertainment (LBE) owners to consider: It's the minutes, not the moolah, that matters most. Many consumers are more worried about making a bad decision and wasting their valuable time than they are about wasting money. Faith Popcorn has coined the term "99 Lives" to describe how busy people are today. She says, "Time is the new money: people would rather spend money than time." Knowing the ways in which different people view time and how much they have to spend can help LBE owners earn valuable customer minutes.

State of the Industry Report, is it really so?

Each year, the International Association for the Leisure & Entertainment Industry (IALEI) publishes a State of the Industry Report touted as containing benchmarks for the industry. IALEI just published the 11th Annual Report. Unfortunately, the organization's claim isn't exactly true, and many location-based entertainment (LBE) owners and developers are getting into trouble using the report's statistics.

The first issue: it is not a true survey of the industry. It represents only the results of a self-administered survey conducted each year at the FunExpo trade show and convention. Electronic survey kiosks are set up at different locations at the show for attendees to use to take the survey. It is self-selecting, meaning only attendees who decide to take the survey on their own complete it. Also, this year, IALEI solicited surveys from IALEI members, 2004 survey respondents and on the home page of the website. So, the survey results don't represent a statistically valid, random cross sample of the industry, due to its self-selecting methodology. Results are only from those in the industry who decide to attend the convention and use the kiosks or people who choose to answer the survey on-line.

It is not reasonable to assume that survey participants are a true cross-section of the industry. For example, Chuck E. Cheese's, a major player in the industry, does not let any of its employees attend FunExpo. It is likely there are many small LBE owners who can't take time away from their business to attend or can't afford to attend. Many small facilities don't belong to IALEI, so it is unlikely they would have visited the home page and answered the survey there. Results may very well be skewed to larger facilities. As a result of all the above, the sample of surveys used in the report cannot be considered a statistically significant cross-sectional sample of the industry.

In the organization's June Fun Extra, IALEI said, "The report can help you manage your business. For example, should you have a single admittance price or pay-as-you-go pricing? What do most businesses like yours do?"

There is no way to tell what most businesses "like yours" do from the survey results. Suppose you are in a major metropolitan area where single admittance price has become the expectation with customers. The report doesn't break out who is doing what into any specific area in which you can compare your LBE.

IALEI says the report can also help you answer the question, "Am I holding enough birthday parties?" Well, if you are an X-size facility in an M-size market and you have D, E, F, and G attractions and one major competitor, there is no way that the report can give you any guidance on this question.

Where we have seen this State of the Industry Report do the most damage is with new LBE developers. We have actually seen business plans where developers are using averages from the report. The average elevation of a rollercoaster is a straight horizontal line. The average doesn't tell you anything about the rollercoaster. Averages can get you in a lot of trouble, as they don't reflect the specifics of a particular project in a particular market. Prices in New York and New Jersey are much higher than in Arkansas and West Virginia. Average prices do not reflect any of these situations. Using a report average in New York could result in significantly understated revenues, which could indicate a project is not feasible when in fact it is. Using an average price in Arkansas would probably significantly overstate revenues, resulting in a developed LBE that goes broke.

Another problem with the survey is that at FunExpo, survey respondents are answering the questions on percentages, per caps, attendance, etc., for their facilities from memory, not from actual numbers from their financial and other reports.

Coffee, café, play, Mommy and me

We believe that the first for-profit children's edutainment center (CEdC) was the Wol-Ha center we designed and produced in the main town of Cancun for one of our Mexican clients in 1995. That was part of a facility that also included a bowling center. That CEdC was the equivalent of about a 15,000-square-foot freestanding center. After Wol-Ha, we went on to produce both freestanding CEdCs, as well as ones integrated with other uses. Bamboola in San Jose, California, was a 24,000-square-foot indoor, 5,000-square-foot outdoor CEdC. Dinotropolis in Caracas, Venezuela, combined children's edutainment with children's entertainment. Totter's Otterville in the greater Cleveland, Ohio, area was part of Johnny's Toy Store. LouLou Al Dugong's in Dubai, U.A.E., was located in a mall. Paradise Park in the greater Kansas City, Missouri, area includes a CEdC combined with a family entertainment center.

An issue we address on all our projects is right sizing them for their markets. Projects need to be designed to accommodate what is called their "design day," which is a mathematically derived peak design occupancy based on an average of peak times on peak days. In the West, these peak days are typically Saturdays. In Islamic countries, it can be a Thursday, Friday or Saturday, depending on the country. The CEdC needs to be large enough to accommodate the design day peak demand, or it will be way too crowded. Likewise, you don't want to make the CEdC too large for its market, or the investment return will not be maximized. (See Size Does Matter: Selecting the Right Size for Your Center for more about right sizing).

In most markets, when we run the attendance projections, the design day calculation requires a CEdC that is 20,000 to 24,000 square feet, which is a sizable investment.

Our clients have constantly asked us for a way to develop a smaller CEdC that requires a smaller investment. Finally, one of our clients in Chicago, Illinois, challenged us enough that we broke through our paradigm of sizing. What if the CEdC was more narrowly focused on at-home moms and only open to the general public on weekdays - and on Friday nights, weekends and holidays, hosted only birthday parties? Ah ha! We no longer have to size it for Saturdays, as there is no public general admission and the number of parties can be controlled.

CEdCs do significant business during the weekday with at-home moms with preschool children. These moms want a place to meet with their friends while the children can be engaged in quality play. You don't need 20,000+ square feet for the weekday business. A smaller CEdC could be designed for the at-home moms with preschool market on the weekdays and could be solidly booked on weekends for parties based upon balancing the play capacity with the number of party rooms. A new model CEdC is born. We first started calling this new model an At-Home Moms Café.

There seems to be some telepathletic nature to new ideas. As we were evolving the design for the At-Home Moms Café, similar concepts targeting at-home moms starting appearing throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, and of all places, South Korea. These centers are being called such names as play cafés, parent-and-child cafés, family lifestyle clubs (a strange name that evolved in New York City, but then again, many things in New York City are strange) and 'Some Name' playgrounds.

The model we have developed for at-home mom cafés is based upon the successful CEdC model we have perfected over the past 11 years, but with a few play activities omitted and everything scaled-down (we previously scaled down some toilets for children in our CEdCs, so we haven't reduced any more in size). Our research shows that the at-home moms café will be the most successful in the 9,000- to 10,000-square-feet size range, plus the possibility of some outdoor space - a real plus. With anything smaller than that, you lose the variety of play activities needed for repeat appeal, plus you don't have the kitchen space needed to produce a varied menu that meets moms' desires.

At-home moms' cafes have some definite advantages, making them easier to manage. They are typically open for about eight hours each weekday. This means you can hire mostly a full-time staff to run them during the week. Full-time staff has many advantages, including getting to know regular customers better, and thus delivering better customer service. Women want to have a relationship with businesses with which they frequent. With a full-time regular staff, you can develop relationships with guests. For a weekday business, full-time workers with regular work hours are usually easier to find.

Then, on Friday nights, weekends and holidays, when the at-home moms café hosts only private parties, you can hire a part-time staff that's specially trained to run parties. The café is easier to run during these party times, as the menu is much more limited - basically pizza and drinks - and you know in advance all the food requirements for ordering and production. There are a lot of people looking for part-time work on weekends. Party hosts can be paid on a contract per party basis, so labor costs can be tightly controlled.

With many more women waiting until later in their professional careers to take off from work to have and raise children, we think the demand for at-home moms cafes will only continue to grow. One important factor that does affect their development is that you are predominately dealing with an educated and previously professional career mom, so she has high expectations for the quality of the facility, the food and beverage (this is not your nachos and hot dog crowd), cleanliness, customer service - all aspects of the business.

And speaking about food and getting back to South Korea, there are more than 10 parent-and-child cafés in Seoul, where the menus include Japanese noodles and fried rice. Cooking lessons are popular with the children.

We have identified close to two dozen play cafes of various forms that have opened throughout the United States. In addition to general admission and parties, some of the play cafés also offer children's and Mommy and me classes. Some play cafes have built their model on memberships. Some of them have great features. Unfortunately, some of them are either very small or done on the cheap, and we seriously doubt those will survive long-term.

We are currently working with three women entrepreneurs on developing play cafes in the Chicago, Illinois, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, areas and a Caribbean island. Finding and negotiating leases for locations is much more difficult than any of these developers originally imagined. One of the most difficult challenges, besides finding space at a rent that makes economic sense, is also finding locations that can include an outdoor play garden. Outdoor landscaped seating and play areas have a very positive impact on the appeal of the play cafés. Even in bad or winter weather, the views of the outdoors allow you to 'borrow the landscaping,' which has a dramatic impact on the feel and appeal of the indoors. And in good weather, when both moms and children want to be outdoors, the outdoor play garden overcomes the seasonality of an indoor-only space.

Developing children's play

Designing play for young children is much more difficult than most people realize. Difficult, that is, if you want it to work for the children and to be safe for them, as well. Children change dramatically in their size, skills and interests in just a few years. For example, a 3-year-old has a median height of 37 inches (94 cm), whereas a 7-year-old's height is 48 inches (122 cm). That presents serious challenges for designing play events and equipment that will work for both ages.

We have to custom-design almost all of the play equipment for children's edutainment centers and at-home mom cafés (see above story) we develop for clients. We have learned that despite all the anthropometric data and experience we have observing children in play and other environments, children can behave in unexpected ways with only the smallest change in the environment's design. So we prototype any new equipment designs and test them with children to make sure we will get the behavior the equipment is designed to create.

Recently we designed a miniature train table for the edutainment dining room at our client's new StoneFire Pizza Co. in the Milwaukee area (see eatertainment story below). We created a prototype so we could test it with children. Well, we were surprised, but not shocked, when the theoretical table height that should work didn't. At the original designed height, younger children were actually climbing over the table to get into a hole in the center. They were supposed to climb under the table to access the hole, or so we thought. We modified the table height by just two inches and the children behaved as planned. As they say, the devil is in the details.

Additional reading:

• Adults are from Earth; Children are from the Moon. Designing for Children: A Complex Challenge
• Child's Play and the Family; Complexities and Opportunities
• Designing Safe Play Environments for Children
• Child's Play: More Complicated Than It Looks
• Designing for All Children

Away-from-home leisure competition increasing

It's bad enough that families are feeling time pressed (see story above, Time is more than money). But at the same time, new forms of competition are appearing to compete for what limited leisure time families do have to invest in an away-from-home experience. Here's a rundown of some of the newer concepts we see competing with location-based entertainment venues, including family entertainment centers:

Indoor Waterpark Hotel/Resorts

The idea of taking the waterpark indoors and combining it with a family hotel evolved in the Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, which was originally a summer vacation destination for Chicago, Illinois; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and other cities within a 200-mile drive. In 1994 the Polynesian Resort Hotel opened the area's first indoor waterpark. The development of these types of resorts in the Wisconsin Dells (there are now 21) completely changed the nature of the Dells, which is now as busy on weekends in the winter as in the summer. Then along came chains like Great Wolf Resorts (a public company) and Marcus Hotels and Resorts (a division of Marcus Corporation, one of America's largest cinema chains), which have taken the indoor waterpark resorts to non-tourist destinations such as Kansas City, Kansas; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Sheboygan, Wisconsin (a town of less than 100,0000), and Utica, Illinois. As of the end of 2005, there were 104 indoor waterpark resorts in North America. Another 35 are expected to open in 2006, and an additional 155 indoor waterpark resorts are under development or in planning stages.

The fast emergence of hotel waterpark resorts and their popularity offers time-strapped parents a convenient option for a quick family getaway within an easy drive of their home, sometimes in their own town. The majority of these mini-vacations occur on weekends, except during summer vacation and school holidays.

Eatertainment

The bar for eatertainment venues was recently raised with the opening of the first T-REX restaurant in Kansas City, Kansas (see separate story in this issue). T-REX is directly targeting families with children, the same target market as family entertainment centers. It has taken the Rainforest Café, a popular family eatertainment venue, to the next level.

Additionally, what many people might have thought of as a young adult sports fan's haven, ESPN Zone , is actually a family destination, as well. ESPN Zone has undertaken a new marketing campaign, supported by 30-second television spots, targeting families with younger kids -- particularly tweens, ages 8 to 12, who aren't old enough to go out alone but think of themselves as too "cool" to hang out with mom or dad. With the new campaign, ESPN Zone is trying to recast itself from a special-occasion destination to a more everyday family dining and entertainment destination. (To see a copy of the new Mom's Calling 30-second commercial, click here: High resolution Low resolution)

No longer just a nascent trend, the super eatertainment concept of family pizza buffet/entertainment center (FPBEC) is marching across North America. FPBECs combine the best of the buffet concepts with pizza, the most popular food with children, and add in family entertainment to create a unique and appealing family destination. The first FPBEC was a 7,000-square-foot Mr. Gatti's buffet restaurant, owned by Rick Barsness in Victoria, Texas. He added 5,000 square feet of games in 1987. Since that time, the Mr. Gatti's restaurant chain has opened over 20 Gattilands (smaller) and Gattitowns (larger) ranging is size from 18,000 to 30,000 square feet. John's Incredible Pizza Co. operates a very successful chain of six FPBECs in California, with the largest being 59,000 square feet. America's Incredible Pizza Co., trading as [Name of City] Incredible Pizza Company, has opened six FPBECs in Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas and has 10 more openings planned in the near future, including in Mexico. The largest facility is over 90,000 square feet. There are other individual and small chain FPBEC operators cropping up throughout the country, including one of our latest projects, StoneFire Pizza Co., opening in November in New Berlin, Wisconsin.

StoneFire Pizza Co., an upscale FPBEC concept produced by White Hutchinson, will open this November. There are currently over 40 operating FPBECs in the U.S. that range in size from 22,000 to 90,000 square feet.

The eatertainment pizza and games concept continues to expand and evolve. The 52-year-old Shakey's Pizza is revamping itself with a new eatertainment concept called Shakey's Pizza & Grill, including a new menu, game room and decor. The first will open in Covina, California, in September 2006.

"A lot of Shakey's stores are older and in need of polishing to make them more relevant to today's families," said Tom Pulido, president and CEO of Shakey's USA Inc. "But many customers also have fond childhood memories of Shakey's. We held on to our past while at the same time we brought the brand into the 21st century... Our target is families with kids," Pulido said. "That's still the bull's-eye."

The new look and menu reflect a shift in American attitudes toward style and health. "Shakey Johnson was a fun-loving person, and his attitude was reflected in everything he did. While Shakey's Pizza has stayed true to its heritage of entertainment and value, its attitude has waned a bit over the years," said Pulido. "Through our new employee training program and revitalized store design, the new Shakey's Pizza & Grill will once again fully embody that fun-loving attitude allowing Shakey's memory to live on."

Shakey's Pizza & Grill will retain Shakey's original thin-crust pizza, fried chicken and MoJo potatoes, but will also offer new menu items such as hand-tossed salads, burgers, micro-brewed beer and gourmet pizzas.

Shakey's was established in 1954 in Sacramento, and at one point, had 500 stores. There are now 60 stores, including 50 in Southern California. The Covina Shakey's is one of 15 corporate-owned stores.

Pulido said Covina was chosen for the prototype because it has the demographics the company was targeting and is within a shopping center with good anchors.

Shakey's plans to remodel five corporate stores and to open four prototype stores in the next year. Those stores will serve as examples to franchisees as to how to convert their restaurants into the new model. (For more on Shakey's, see Shakey's celebrates 50 years of eatertainment. Also see Peter Piper Pizza revamps its stores for information on Peter Piper Pizza, another pizza and games chain, and also the chain's website.)

For years, fast food restaurants such as McDonald's and Burger King have included indoor soft-contained play units. Now, many more traditional restaurants are adding children's play areas. One good example is Landry's at the Joe's Crab Shack restaurants, which are adding either indoor or outdoor children's play areas. Landry's has also created another extremely popular concept with families. The company has grouped 10 of its different restaurant concepts in a waterfront park setting with 13 different rides, various midway games and retail shops at Kemah Boardwalk in Kemah, Texas, southeast of Houston.

Agritainment

Many farmers have gone beyond raising cattle, milking cows and growing crops and made the leap into the experience economy with family attractions during the fall through Halloween. You could call it pumpkin-tainment, but it is known in the industry as agritainment. First farmers offered U-pick-it pumpkin patches, but the public wanted more. Once out there on the farm on a beautiful clear, crisp, fall day, people were in no hurry to leave. And farmers, smart businesspeople they are, figured out ways to use the season and the holiday and the power of per caps to build revenue. They started offering mazes, petting zoos, hayrides and haunted trails, some of which are free and some of which come with a per person charge.

The first corn maze in the U.S. was created in 1993 in Annville, Pennsylvania, when students and staff from Lebanon Valley College wanted a way to help flood victims in the Midwest. They had heard about European mazes, usually made with hedges. Why not carve a maze out of a cornfield? They cut a maze in the shape of a dinosaur in a 3-acre field of growing corn. Admission was $5. It was a big success.

The demand for mazes has grown ever since then and has spawned a half-dozen companies that design and cut the things, some using GPS computer driven mowers - high tech equipment meets low tech corn. Mazes come in various shapes and themes, from the usual witches and such to the really bizarre, like the "Kerry vs. Bush" maze and the maze honoring the Detroit Pistons basketball team. From the inside, of course, it's just corn and more corn, or in some cases, maize.

Get lost long enough, and when you come out, you sure are famished. Farmers quickly figured out that their next logical step was to sell food, like hamburgers and hot dogs cooked on the barbecue, and smoked turkey legs and roasted corn and homemade apple fritters. It all tasted better out on the farm.

Then they figured out they could add more entertainment and increase both the admission charge and food per caps, as the longer people stayed out in that fresh farm air, the more they would eat and drink. So farmers added peddle-go karts, giant slides, pumpkin slingshots, even pig races and animatronic singing chicken shows. The farm family-based fall festival was born and has been booming ever since.

Today, there are over 300 significant fall mazes and family fall festivals around the country, all grabbing a large share of October weekend away-from-home family entertainment. In fact, some farmers have extended the season to almost three full months all the way back into August. And if you don't think this is a big deal, just take a look at Vala's Pumpkin Patch up in Omaha, Nebraska, that attracts hundreds of thousands, or Cherry-Crest Farm near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, or Davis' Mega-Maze in Sterling, Massachusetts, just three of our agritainment clients.

Just a few of the offerings of these three family agritainment attractions

Dedicated birthday party facilities

Birthday and private parties are a significant source of revenue for most LBEs. Dedicated birthday party facilities are now cropping up throughout the country and skimming away some of the cream from LBEs. These party facilities are usually located in low-rent spaces, such as office-warehouse buildings, and are open only on weekends for birthday parties (or other times for parties or groups by reservation). They offer aspiring LBE developers an opportunity to get into the industry with an investment of less than $200,000 without all the long hours that the typical LBE requires. The facilities are open only when there is a booked party, limiting operations to three or four days a week. Probably the best known of these is the Pump it Up franchise. Many industry veterans have expressed doubts whether the Pump It Up operation has staying power.

Hero's birthday party

Our favorite party facility concept is Hero's, The Party Experience, developed by Laurien and Chester Henry, long-term and highly respected family entertainment center operators and owners of Adventure Zone in Calgary, Canada, and Frank Price, the world's guru of children's birthday parties and founder and owner of Birthday Party University. Rather than a franchise with ongoing franchise fees and franchise agreements that can be very rigid, Hero's offers a turnkey license package.

Retail-tainment

Many mall and shopping center developers are turning their centers into retail-tainment multi-faceted shopping, dining and entertainment destinations. For more information on retail-tainment, see this issue's story, Retail developers becoming restaurant and entertainment operators.

Taming the thrills attracts families

For years, theme parks have added larger, faster and more thrilling rides in their quest to stay fresh and maintain attendance. Every year, we hear about some taller, faster, higher G-force and scarier rollercoaster being added to some amusement park.

Well, it looks like there is a change in the wind. Some parks are starting to realize that chasing the teenage crowd with thrill rides is not the best formula for success. Instead, they are refocusing on the family.

"The biggest trend we are seeing is a family-focus - a good, solid, multigenerational experience," says Beth Robertson, communications director for the International Association of Amusement Parks & Attractions (IAAPA). Paul Ruben, North American editor of Park World magazine, says, "Many parks have gone out of their way to improve the entire experience of the theme park visit... For years they thought the way to increase attendance was to bring in a compelling new thrill ride, but now they are realizing that things got out of balance and the family got left behind."

Many new rides, referred to as "mild thrills," are tamer, designed as immersive experiences the whole family can enjoy. The new Italian Job Turbo Coaster at Paramount's King's Dominion barely gets out of second gear, topping out at 40 miles per hour, just a third the speed of the fastest coasters. Even little kids can ride it. At Mount Olympus Water and Theme Park in Wisconsin, the Opa! Twister Coaster zigs and zags, but never drops more than 45 feet (14 meters).

This change is all based on economics. Mild thrill rides cost a lot less to build and maintain. Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey, is billed as the world's tallest and faster coaster at 128-mph (206-kph).

See video of Kingda Ka

Kingda Ka cost $20 million compared with the $5 million Reese's Xtreme Cup Challenge at Hersheypark in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Six Flags, with 28 U.S. parks, has run into financial difficulties in recent years with declining attendance. Industry observers cite the chain's reputation for being teen-dominated. "We are trying to reset the balance between teens and families," says Six Flags' spokeswoman Wendy Goldberg. "There was a perception that Six Flags was good only for teens, not kids and adults.

Six Flags now considers the family market as central to its comeback. Smoking is now banned in all Six Flags parks. Daily parades are being added. Mark Shapiro, CEO, says, "We've got to jump into family waters. Family is an added opportunity for us to expand our business."

One thing that is now "in" in amusement parks are dark rides - rides where all ages enter tunnels, dungeons, and themed fantasy lands on self-propelled vehicles that can hold the entire family. Many of the dark rides offer interactivity, where riders can shoot at targets or monsters and earn scores for comparison at the end of the ride. One example is the new Men in Black ride at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida.

To play a video of the Men in Black ride, click here.

Thematic food

Any restaurant or eatertainment facility needs to offer some menu variety for regular repeat guests. Sometimes this is accomplished with daily or weekly specials or seasonal menus. The Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes buffet restaurant chain uses a really smart approach to this issue: during the growing season, have a monthly theme based upon seasonal produce.

Highlighting the August Cherry Good Time menu was an all new cherry Chipotle spinach with cashews tossed salad, which combined fresh, vitamin-rich green spinach with juicy red apples, tangy Mandarin oranges, protein packed cashews, and of course, dried cherries. The salad was then tossed in a zesty, made-from-scratch cherry-Chipotle vinaigrette. Other cherry recipes included tangy, made-from-scratch cherry nut muffins, and after 4 p.m., delicious warm cherry apple cobbler.

Now that it's fall, they have switched to cultural themes. September's theme is Greek.

Miniature golf factoid

Based upon a survey of 29,790 online panelists, 27% of Americans played at least one round of miniature golf during the 12 months ending May 2006. Of these, 34% traveled 5-15 miles to play, and 38% traveled more than 20 miles to visit a miniature golf course.

Construction cost escalation continues

There is no relief in sight to the escalating cost of new construction. The U.S. Bureau of Labor reports new construction costs have increased 8.9% during the year ending July 2006. The graph below shows the rate of increase for the past 10 years, with July 1996 being a base of 100. As the graph shows, there has been steady and consistent increase in new construction costs starting with 2004. In fact, from July 2003 to July 2006, new construction costs have increased a total of a total of 26%.

The high cost of construction is making the economic feasibility of location-based entertainment (LBE) projects very difficult, as development costs have increased faster than admission and other fees. Another factor negatively impacting profitability of projects is energy costs. Between July 2003 and July 2006, the average cost of electricity has increased 18.7% whereas the overall Consumer Price Index has increased only 10.9%. The costs of developing and operating LBEs is fast outpacing what guests can be charged. This means that many LBE projects that might have been feasible just a few years ago are no longer feasible.

The Stinger Report now free

Since 1994, Kevin Williams' The Stinger Report e-newsletter has been providing industry news and informed analysis, investigative reports and sensitive behind-the-scenes exposes on predominately the video amusement and interactive attraction business. Previously circulated privately by paid subscription among industry insiders, the ezine is now available by free subscription. To subscribe, just follow the 'subscription' link, and add your email address at www.thestingerreport.com.

First T-REX Café opens

July 25, 2006, was the date that the latest themed restaurant concept opened at the Legend's at Village West lifestyle shopping center in Kansas City, Kansas. Named T-REX after that most famous of dinosaurs, the restaurant has taken themed restaurants to the next level. In a way, you might call it a prehistoric Rainforest Café on steroids.

Created by Steven Schussler, also the creator of the Rainforest Café, T-REX is built around water, fire and ice, which work together to take visitors back to a time before people walked the earth. Animatronic dinosaurs are placed amid cascading waterfalls, ice caves, bubbling geysers, and sounds of roaring dinosaurs.

T-REX seats 375 and is divided into separate, distinctively themed dining rooms with animatronic creatures. A giant animatronic octopus sits over the Shark Bar. The Ice Age Room resurrects the woolly mammoth, complete with baby and machine-made snow. The Sequoia Room is the home of a Triceratops and its infant, along with a 2,000-gallon fish tank. Other dining areas include the Shark Room, Fern Forest Room, Geo-Tech Room, Aqua Room and an outside deck for al fresco dining.

T-REX Café offers more than just dining with the dinosaurs. There's the gift shop and a Build-A-Dino store where dinosaur fans can take home their own personalized dinosaur. Build-A-Bear Workshop developed the store in partnership with T-REX. Would-be-paleontologists can practice their skills in a dinosaur dig with replicas of fossil bones; there is a mining sluice to find treasures and small caves that can be toured with fascinating crystals and gems.

New T-REX Café in Kansas City, Kansas

Schussler and his partner in the venture, Landry's Restaurants, say they have planned T-REX so it won't make the mistake of earlier defunct themed restaurants that offered too much flash with the décor and not enough quality and value with the food. For example, Planet Hollywood has gone bankrupt twice since it began in the early 1990s and has closed several restaurants, including one at the Mall of America. "I think it's a pitfall that some themed restaurants have that they are so reliant on the theme that they forget that food and service are what bring people back a second time," said Rick Van Warner, president of the Parquet Group, restaurant consultants based in Winter Park, Florida.

"People will come once for the 'wow' factor, but they will come back for the great food and quality service," according to Schussler. Drinks and dishes at T-REX include Mastodon Margaritas, Mammoth Mushroom Raviolis, Triassic Tortellini, the Bronto Burger and Macadamia Nut Crusted Snapper. Desserts include Chocolate Extinction and Build-Your-Own-S'mores. Menu prices are more than reasonable for the quality of the food, ranging from $8.99 to $22.99.

Click on each image to see menu

The 20,000-square-foot T-REX cost in excess of $15 million dollars, far more per square foot than a typical freestanding restaurant and also bigger in size and cost than Schussler's first Rainforest Cafe that made its debut in the mid-1990s at the Mall of America. To justify that investment, T-REX will have to draw thousands of patrons daily and entice them to spend some serious money, industry experts said. Schussler considers drawing a mob to be a foregone conclusion, bragging that T-REX will be a "blockbuster hit" that could be around for 50 years. He waxes effusive about T-REX, calling it "over the top, the best thing I have ever done." Tilman Tertitta, president, chairman and chief executive officer of Landry's, said T-REX will be very successful if it averages 1,000 customers a day. Jeff Cantwell, Landry's senior vice president of development said Landry's expects T-REX will post annual sales of $8 million to $12 million.

Eight more T-REX Cafés are scheduled to open in the U.S. with the next in Downtown Disney Marketplace in Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida, in early 2008. Additionally, 10 international T-REXs are planned.

2007 Foundation Entertainment University
dates and locations set

The following dates and locations have been set for the 2007 three-day Foundations Entertainment Universities.

• February 6-8, 2007 - Houston, Texas
• April 24-26, 2007 - Chicago, Illinois
• July 17-19, 2007 - Kansas City, Missouri

Registration and hotel information have not yet been posted on the website. You can sign up at foundationsuniversity.com/register.html to get an e-mail notice when information is posted for the February 2007 Foundation.

Jon Ellis, owner of Paradise Park family entertainment and children's edutainment center in Kansas City, Missouri, talks to July 2006 Foundations Entertainment University attendees and
takes them on tour of his center.

In the news

In addition to having our whitepaper, Time is more than money, published in the June 2006 issue of RePlay Magazine (see story above), we've also been in the news.

The August Newsletter of the Middle East Council of Shopping Centres (MECSC) included an article Fun at the Mall that discussed trends with retail-tainment. Randy White, our CEO, was extensively quoted as an expert in the article. (Click here to download the article as a PDF file)

Then, the September 6, 2006 issue of the Kansas City Star newspaper, metropolitan Kansas City's daily newspaper, had a front page article, Playing up playtime: It's kids' leaning gift, that also quoted Randy White, this time on the design of play environments for children and children's need for open-ended, hands-on, imaginative and outdoor play. Paradise Park, one of the centers our company designed and produced, was also cited in the article as an example of a facility that offers children interactive play. (Click here to download the article as a PDF file)

Retail developers become restaurant and entertainment operators

American mall developers are facing increasing challenges to keep their retail projects relevant to today's consumers in the changing face of retail. New forms of shopping complexes, including "lifestyle," big box and even entertainment districts are taking sales away from traditional enclosed malls that used to dominate their markets. The closing and consolidation of department stores, the very anchors that made malls feasible, are further threatening the survival of many malls. Today, many malls are closing and being demolished, and others are being de-malled to become open-air lifestyle type projects.

As department stores in particular are disappearing, mall and other large-sized retail project developers are looking for new anchors. One answer is entertainment, eatertainment and dining - to turn the mall into a retail-tainment destination. However, when it comes to entertainment, there are few tenant options for developers short of cinemas and Dave & Buster's.

In many other parts of the world, mall developers have taken a different and more proactive approach than American developers who want to stay passive and just lease space. Mall developers in Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe are developing and operating their own entertainment venues in malls, rather than being limited to the few chain entertainment tenants. Advantages of the developer of the mall developing and operating the entertainment is that they are not constrained to the limited availability of entertainment tenants, and some of the entertainment can be integrated into the mall's common area, rather than have it all be contained in a store space. These developers also understand that the entertainment venues not only generate mall traffic, but can also be highly profitable.

For example, our company is currently working with a retail mall developer in the Middle East who plans to operate cinemas, a family entertainment center, a children's edutainment and enrichment center, a bowling center and restaurant concepts in the mall.

White Hutchinson has been able to fully integrate family entertainment into the Middle East's mall common areas because the mall's developer will own and operate the entertainment attractions. This rendering shows ice skating in the background and u-drive boats and cars in the foreground of this two-story mixed-use enclosed mall.

Perhaps the most extravagant example of integrating entertainment in a mall is Ski Dubai in Mall of the Emirates in Dubai, U.A.E. It features real snow and a 1,200-foot-long (366 meter) indoor ski slope with five ski runs of varying degrees of difficulty, toboggan runs, sledding hills and a tubing run.

Ski Dubai is constructed over the parking structure at Mall of the Emirates in Dubai

In America, for years, the Mall of America (MOA) in Bloomington, Minnesota, was one of very few malls that operated entertainment attractions to position its mall as retail-tainment, blending together retail, entertainment and dining to produce a fully integrated and rich leisure and shopping experience appealing for the entire family. In the heart of MOA is a large amusement park with a wide variety of rides and attractions for the entire family. Previously known as Camp Snoopy, it is now called The Park at MOA.

In addition, MOA has a 1.2 million-gallon aquarium, a NASCAR Silicon Motor Speedway , and the Dinosaur Walk Museum. An ice skating rink and indoor waterpark are planned for the phase II expansion.

MOA has 43 million visitors a year. Dan Jasper, Director of PR at MOA, attributes the success this way, "People are multi-taskers. They want to shop, have fun with their kids, eat and relax, all on their own time. Destinations like the Mall of America can provide all of this."

We are seeing a change of attitude on the part of a number of American mall developers toward developing and operating entertainment and eatertainment attractions. Perhaps the best example is the Baltimore-based Cordish Company, which has developed many of the U.S.'s most successful retail and urban entertainment projects. Besides bringing in independent retailers, Entertainment Concept Investors, Inc. (ECI), the restaurant and club division of the Cordish Company designs, builds, owns, and operates restaurant, eatertainment, lounge, and live entertainment concepts throughout the United States. ECI operates a variety of concepts in approximately 30 markets across the United States, often placing them together in Cordish's synergistic entertainment districts.

ECI recently bought the Orlando and Myrtle Beach NASCAR Cafés and plans to recreate them in addition to the license for future projects, and will rebrand them under the name NASCAR Sports Grille. Cordish intends to build one NASCAR Sports Grille a year and at the same time devise a more contemporary look and feel to the 11-year-old race-themed concept.

Reed Cordish, vice president of Cordish, said the 20,000-square-foot Orlando restaurant will feature an outdoor tailgate area, interactive gaming space, sports screening room and enclosed shop with NASCAR merchandise.

"We want to far exceed anyone's expectations of a themed restaurant or a sports restaurant," said Reed Cordish, company vice president. "We've brought in a world-class designer and are creating a very hip concept that will appeal to the NASCAR fan base, but also expand well beyond that to people who are just interested in sports in general. We're blowing past the classic model of the sports-oriented restaurant in terms of design, cuisine and content."

"When you look at the café, it was born about the same time as the restaurant industry was exploding," said Blake Davidson, managing director of NASCAR's licensed products. "But the concept hasn't evolved much from what it started out as, so we saw this as a good opportunity to inject some life into it and take it in a new direction, as well. The entire marketplace has evolved. We've got to keep up with what's happening in the marketplace."

Cordish's first move will be to spend $5 million renovating the NASCAR Café in Orlando, which sits in Universal Studio's CityWalk. The redesign will create something of a high-end tailgating atmosphere, complete with a large open-flame grill and a more sophisticated menu than the typical wings and chicken tenders fare associated with most sports restaurants.

Guests will enter the NASCAR Sports Grille through a 30-foot-tall glass and steel replica of the Nextel Cup. Inside, Cordish plans an interactive video component to each table, which will allow guests to select segments on a favorite driver or event.

Cordish intends to keep the Orlando restaurant open through the renovations, with the project to be completed in time to debut before the Daytona 500 next February. Once the Orlando footprint is in place, Cordish will begin work on Myrtle Beach and future locations, as well as developing a smaller model that might target lower-volume areas.

"We're just starting to look at future sites," Cordish said. "We want to be very selective, and we think we can be. There are certainly places of interest, like a Times Square or an Atlantic City, areas around pro sports stadiums. With our background, a strong overall project is the best home."

Cordish's ECI division has licensed several other leading national and international brands including Hard Rock, Hard Rock Live, and McFadden's; assumed exclusive international food and beverage rights for brands such as Maker's Mark; developed additional signature restaurant and limited service concepts including Vine and Vinino by Chef Christopher Paternotte, MEX, Maker's Mark Bourbon House & Lounge, Power Dogs and Chesapeake Market (a.k.a. The Market); and created PPE club/lounge brands including Mosaic Lounge, Snitch and The Grove. New concepts such as Big Sky and Hotel will debut 2006 and 2007. In addition, ECI will be unveiling a new premium movie theater and restaurant venue, dubbed The Theater of the Future, in partnership with AMC Theatres.

Update on summer teenage labor force participation

In our June 2005 eNewsletter, we ran an in-depth story on summer teenage employment, Where have the teenage workers gone? We have just obtained information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on July 2006 labor force participation by 16- to 19-year-olds. There was a slight increase from 53% participation in July 2005 to 53.5% in July 2006. That miniscule increase does not indicate any change in the overall trend of a declining summer teenage workforce. In fact, August figures show a small decrease in teenage labor force participation, from 48.5% in 2005 to 47.8% in 2006.

New projects

Sun Mountain Fun Center, Bend, Oregon, U.S.A.
Ten years ago we conducted the feasibility study and developed the master plan for expansion of a stand-alone bowling center into an indoor-outdoor family entertainment center. The owners have retained us to undertake an audit of the center to evaluate its operation and make recommendations for upgrades and expansion. Website: www.sunmountainfun.com

Enclosed mall, Texas, U.S.A
White Hutchinson has been retained as design managers to oversee the renovation of a one-million-square-foot (93,000 sm) enclosed mall that will include adding an open-air lifestyle component. Work will include design and development of a children's edutainment center.

Al Ghariyan Resort, Qatar
We conducted an evaluation of this seaside family resort and recommended a redevelopment and expansion master plan program.

At-home mom's café, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
We are assisting a developer with site evaluation, feasibility and lease negotiations for an at-home moms café.

Family pizza buffet-entertainment center, Midwest, U.S.A.
Our company is conducting feasibility, concept development and preliminary plans for an 85,000-square-foot indoor, one-acre outdoor family pizza buffet-entertainment center that will be an entertainment anchor of a new 800,000-square-foot retail-tainment project.

Grand Targhee Resort, Alta, Wyoming, U.S.A.
We prepared renovated plans for the child care facility used by families visiting this summer and winter resort in the Teton Mountains. Work included new floor plans, children's furniture specifications, new flooring, new check-in area and acoustical treatments for the rooms. The child care center is located at the base of the Teton Mountains in a two-room log cabin used for children under the age of 5 during ski season and used for summer camps sponsored by the Grand Targhee Institute, which provides environmentally-based programs for local children during June, July and August. Grand Targhee Resort website: www.grandtarghee.com

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To learn more about our projects and services

To learn more about our services and how we can help you with a new project or an existing one, don't hesitate to contact Randy White, our CEO, via e-mail or by phone at 816.931-1040. We are on Central Time (same as Chicago). Randy often works in the office on Saturdays, so feel free to contact him then if weekdays are not a convenient time for you to call.

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White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group, Inc.