ROBERT TOTH STARTED to see the world reopen around him and, in some ways, without him.
Many businesses in Rhode Island, such as restaurants, salons, fitness centers and stores, have been opening up again since May after being forced closed in mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At those businesses, the customers are now returning – most of them donning masks.
But Toth’s two businesses, Old Mountain Lanes Inc. in South Kingstown and Walnut Hill Bowl in Woonsocket, remained dark through late June, his customers locked out since mid-March.
“It’s difficult to watch,” Toth said of seeing other businesses restart while his stayed closed, continuing to lose money.
Toth is among a group of owners and managers of indoor-recreation facilities across Rhode island who have grown increasingly frustrated during the coronavirus crisis, complaining about a lack of direction from state officials over three months as they watched their peak season slip by.
When Gov. Gina M. Raimondo announced that indoor-recreation businesses will be allowed to open under phase three, which began on June 30, some were left wondering what took so long, asserting that their roomy facilities could have accommodated safety guidelines and opened with other businesses in phase two on June 1.
Fed up with the situation, one company, R1 Indoor Karting LLC in Lincoln, reopened before the start of phase three without permission from state officials.
Despite mounting losses, facility managers say they’re confident they’ll survive. Now they’re trying to figure out how to claw their way back to profitability and keep their workers employed.
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ROLLING ON: Susan Chace, general manager of United Skates of America in East Providence, says the skating facility has lost $450,000 since closing in mid-March and may have to reduce the hours of some part-time workers. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY[/caption]
A LOST SPRING
Red ink has been plentiful on the books at various indoor-recreation businesses.
Susan Chace, general manager of the United Skates of America in East Providence, said the roller rink has lost $450,000 since it closed in mid-March after a strong start to the year.
And the numbers are going to get worse because the rink couldn’t cash in on lucrative end-of-the-school-year parties that typically are scheduled for June, Chace said. The summer months remain a big question mark, too. That’s when summer camps usually send busloads of children to the roller rink each day.
“That’s my livelihood for June, July and August,” Chace said. “If [camps are] not opening up, that’s going to cause a major crush for us for our summer.”
Chace is also predicting a 50% drop in birthday parties, a mainstay for the business. The skating facility normally hosts about 60 to 70 birthday parties per weekend, “maybe more,” during the wintertime, Chace said.
R1 Indoor Karting has racked up about $1.4 million in lost revenue in the three months the business has been closed, according to co-owner Mike Hezemans, who says owning the 100,000-square-foot building (as opposed to renting) has allowed R1 to weather the storm.
Toth has had similar bad news at his two bowling centers – a $968,720 decline in revenue for March, April and May, usually the high point of a profitable league season. Most of Toth’s losses occurred at Old Mountain Lanes, which also includes two restaurants – Camden’s Restaurant and The Coffee Shop. (The Coffee Shop reopened June 8 to include outdoor seating.) Toth has kept the centers afloat by drawing from a rainy-day fund.
Bowling pro shops were also hit hard. Strike F/X Pro Shops LLC co-owner Jonathan Van Hees said his six shops located within bowling centers in Rhode Island and Massachusetts sustained a 90% decline in sales in March. Outside of Facebook bowling ball raffles and generating slim sales via eBay Inc., Strike F/X has not operated “a single day of business” since the shutdown, Van Hees said.
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INCREASED SAFETY: Mike Hezemans, co-owner of R1 Indoor Karting in Lincoln, says R1 spent about $100,000 upgrading and painting the 100,000-square-foot facility to increase safety measures, in addition to sanitizing racing helmets and purchasing new “open helmets” that allow riders to wear their own face masks with the helmets while driving go-karts. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO[/caption]
FEELING FRUSTRATED
While losses mounted, patience ran thin.
Along with seeing other businesses reopen, indoor-recreation facilities say they watched as businesses such as big-box retailers in buildings that are of equal size to their operations never closed at all.
Additionally, Rhode Island’s neighboring states, which have seen significantly more positive COVID-19 cases and fatalities, have either allowed indoor-recreation facilities to reopen or at least given a tentative reopening date. Such facilities in Connecticut reopened June 17, while Massachusetts plans to reopen indoor-recreation facilities around the same time as Rhode Island.
“It’s discouraging because [United Skates is] probably the size of a supermarket, at least. You see the amount of people in a supermarket … yet we can’t open,” Chace said.
Hezemans, who is from the Netherlands and also owns a go-kart track there, understands why camps and outdoor recreation – part of Rhode Island’s phase two – were given early attention, but he said it doesn’t make sense that some large indoor businesses were allowed to open while others weren’t.
“It gives [me] frustration,” he said.
Owners and managers insisted that social distancing – one of the state’s key steps to limiting the virus spread – could be accomplished in their facilities easily. Chace said 100 people inside United Skates “looks like 10 people” because there’s so many attractions, such as the rock wall and laser-tag room, along with the skating rink.
Some owners and managers said communication with the state has been difficult. In some cases, they did not receive any direction until Raimondo’s June 19 announcement of the phase three guidelines – which now allow indoor-recreation facilities to have one customer for every 100 square feet of interior space.
Chace said she struggled since May to get responses from R.I. Department of Business Regulation and R.I. Commerce Corp., even though the state directs all businesses to contact those entities. Toth and Van Hees had a phone conference on May 28 with Commerce RI officials, which Van Hees said was mostly information-gathering on Commerce RI’s part.
Toth said Commerce RI officials spoke with the Bowling Proprietors Association of America to understand what safety measures centers are implementing, but the May 28 call was the only time Toth and Van Hees heard from Commerce RI.
Commerce RI spokesperson Brian Hodge said in an email that there have been “numerous detailed conversations” with entertainment businesses and venues in Rhode Island, but declined comment about what those discussions entailed and with whom.
Bowling centers should be open now, Van Hees said, during the slower summer months, so the centers can test safety protocols before the rush of the league season returns at the end of August.
“Our normal customer flow could be coming in right now and we can be learning and adjusting and doing things properly so that when August and September hits when league season begins, we’re ready to go,” Van Hees said. “We’re more educated. We’re safer. Everything is better for us.”
UNEQUAL TREATMENT?
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FINANCIAL BOUNCE: Stella Downie, owner of Sky Zone in East Providence, says a federal Paycheck Protection Program loan helped the trampoline park retain its managers and provide training and professional development remotely to its part-time staff during the eight weeks covered by the program. / PBN FILE PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY[/caption]
Some were miffed at the June 8 reopening of Twin River Worldwide Holdings Inc.’s two casinos in Lincoln and Tiverton. Carl DeRosa Sr., general manager of Cranston-based Lang’s Bowlarama Inc., called the state giving the green light to the casinos the “biggest slap in the face” to indoor-recreational centers in Rhode Island.
Along with bringing some employees back and implementing new safety measures, Hezemans cited Twin River’s reopening as a main reason why he opened R1 Indoor Karting on June 12, without state permission. The facility only allows invited customers to race the go-karts and the restaurant is closed.
Hezemans said he asked Lincoln town officials about reopening R1 Indoor Karting and, according to the co-owner, he was told that no local approval was necessary. He acknowledged that he didn’t ask the state.
Hezemans said R1 only made a little over $1,000 June 13, the first Saturday after reopening – it makes about $38,000 on a typical Saturday – but it was more about putting people back to work. State officials have repeatedly told Providence Business News that they were “looking into” whether R1 Indoor Karting was in any violation with the state for reopening ahead of phase three.
If state officials do seek to punish R1, Hezemans said he and his staff will have questions for them.
“They … have to explain the difference between us and Twin River,” he said.
Commerce RI has said Twin River’s “unique ability” to implement safety measures under close supervision with invitation-only patrons allowed the casinos to operate in a “very limited manner.” However, Commerce RI did not answer why the casinos, the third-largest source of revenue for the state, were allowed to open early before other indoor-recreation facilities could.
Raimondo on June 29 said the state will be stepping up enforcement of reopening regulations in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program has provided limited relief.
Stella Downie, owner of a Sky Zone LLC location in East Providence, said the PPP program helped the trampoline park retain its managers. It also helped provide training and professional development remotely to its part-time staff during the eight weeks covered by the program.
Hezemans said he used the loan to recall most of his 70 laid-off employees on a limited basis to prepare the go-kart track for reopening. He has 10 employees currently working because of its limited capacity.
Bowling centers found the loan program useless because most of their employees work either the front counter or snack bars, unnecessary jobs when the centers are shuttered.
“The PPP is a windfall for people [such as] painters, landscapers, plumbers, things like that. They have not had a blip in their income stream at all,” Toth said. “They got PPP loans, so they have free money to pay employees to work. If [my] employees are collecting [unemployment], what can I do with it? When I need the PPP is the day I reopen. I need to start cutting payroll checks.”
CHANGES AHEAD
The public will notice several safety changes when it reenters indoor-recreation facilities. R1 spent about $100,000 upgrading and painting the 100,000-square-foot facility to increase safety measures, Hezemans said. Along with sanitizing racing helmets, Hezemans said he purchased new “open helmets” so riders can wear a helmet and their own masks while driving go-karts.
Chace said United Skates installed plexiglass wherever there is employee-customer interaction, hand-sanitizing stations, and it will rotate rental skates and laser-tag packs to limit repeat use. Exterior doors will be opened for additional ventilation. Marketing strategies are changing, too.
“Normally I would do a lot of private parties at night right now, so instead I’m going to open up to the public to find different ways to bring people in,” Chace said. “We would do adult skating about four times a year. I may move that up to 12 times a year.”
According to its promotional video, Sky Zone will limit the number of people inside its facilities, undertake more stringent cleaning measures and allow customers to reserve “private play” times.
To implement social distancing, Old Mountain and Walnut Hill will close every other bowling lane and control the number of customers during open bowling sessions by requiring reservations, Toth said. Along with increased sanitizing of rental shoes and bowling balls, Toth is also looking into purchasing slip-on disposable shoe covers for customers to wear on their street shoes instead of using rental shoes.
And at Lang’s Bowlarama, DeRosa said scheduling for the leagues will be modified to reduce the number of bowlers using the lanes at any one time.
Indoor-recreation employees might endure changes, too.
Chace said full-time employees won’t be affected at United Skates, but some part-time employees may see their hours cut. Toth is confident that all 95 of his employees between Old Mountain and Walnut Hill will return, but DeRosa said Lang’s will only bring back 15 of its 42 employees.
Toth is hoping that things return to normal by year’s end.
“Those months of January, February and March are just huge for us,” Toth said. “We’re expecting that we’re not going to be at capacity until September, October. If it goes beyond Christmas, it’s going to be a real problem for a lot of people.”
James Bessette is special projects editor at PBN. Contact him at Bessette@PBN.com.