The Colonial Shooting Academy at 6020 W. Broad St. (Photos by Michael Thompson)
A Richmond shooting range is ready to pull the trigger on a second location.
Colonial Shooting Academy, which opened in Richmond in 2012, is opening another massive indoor range in Virginia Beach.
The investment group that owns Colonial Shooting Academy bought a 52,000-square-foot former furniture store at 5070 Virginia Beach Blvd. for the new venture.
The move allows CSA to tap into the larger Hampton Roads market.
“It’s got the population to support it, and there’s a huge need for a place to shoot,” CSA general manager Ed Coleman said of the expansion to Virginia Beach. “We’ve got hundreds of new people buying firearms every day and no one to teach them how to shoot.”
Ed Coleman
Coleman said the expansion will cost more than $10 million. CSA’s investment group paid $4.8 million for the property, according to Virginia Beach city records.
Coleman helped launch the first Colonial Shooting Academy in Richmond at 6020 W. Broad St. The 60,000-square-foot Richmond location is also a former furniture store, and the company spent about $11 million to develop it.
CSA had the National Shooting Sports Foundation do a market survey of Virginia Beach and found that there was a shortage of shooting ranges. Coleman said he knew of at least one other range in Virginia Beach that had about six to eight shooting lanes. Colonial Shooting will have 34 lanes when it opens.
The Richmond branch has 51 lanes divided among five ranges and offers classes on firearms use. It has a retail store that sells firearms, which range from $430 to $5,000, jewelry and pepper spray.
Coleman designed the layout of the Richmond Colonial Shooting space to be open and well lit and said the Virginia Beach space would have a similar feel.
The Richmond location has about 50 employees. The Virginia Beach CSA will have the same headcount, Coleman said.
Coleman said 60 percent of Colonial Shooting’s business comes from the range, and the rest comes from a mix of retail and the classes it offers.
The emphasis at Colonial Shooting is more on competitive shooting and personal safety and less on hunting, Coleman said.
“We typically don’t sell Saturday night specials,” Coleman said, referring to low-end guns. A high precision Cabot Gun recently sold at the Richmond location for $10,000.
It costs $15 per hour to rent a handgun to use on the range. Colonial Shooting has about 2,500 members at its Richmond location. Basic membership costs $34.95 a month and comes with unlimited access on the range. Constitution membership costs $200 a month and comes with amenities such as a lounge with poker tables and a pool table. All members receive a pocket copy of the U.S. constitution.
Another Colonial Shooting might open pop up in 2015, Coleman said, adding that he’s seen attitudes toward shooting change in America.
“There’s been a psychological change in the country,” Coleman said of increased popularity of recreational shooting. “People that had been drifting away from shooting are drifting back.”
One of the Richmond location’s 51 shooting lanes.
The Colonial Shooting Academy at 6020 W. Broad St. (Photos by Michael Thompson)
A Richmond shooting range is ready to pull the trigger on a second location.
Colonial Shooting Academy, which opened in Richmond in 2012, is opening another massive indoor range in Virginia Beach.
The investment group that owns Colonial Shooting Academy bought a 52,000-square-foot former furniture store at 5070 Virginia Beach Blvd. for the new venture.
The move allows CSA to tap into the larger Hampton Roads market.
“It’s got the population to support it, and there’s a huge need for a place to shoot,” CSA general manager Ed Coleman said of the expansion to Virginia Beach. “We’ve got hundreds of new people buying firearms every day and no one to teach them how to shoot.”
Ed Coleman
Coleman said the expansion will cost more than $10 million. CSA’s investment group paid $4.8 million for the property, according to Virginia Beach city records.
Coleman helped launch the first Colonial Shooting Academy in Richmond at 6020 W. Broad St. The 60,000-square-foot Richmond location is also a former furniture store, and the company spent about $11 million to develop it.
CSA had the National Shooting Sports Foundation do a market survey of Virginia Beach and found that there was a shortage of shooting ranges. Coleman said he knew of at least one other range in Virginia Beach that had about six to eight shooting lanes. Colonial Shooting will have 34 lanes when it opens.
The Richmond branch has 51 lanes divided among five ranges and offers classes on firearms use. It has a retail store that sells firearms, which range from $430 to $5,000, jewelry and pepper spray.
Coleman designed the layout of the Richmond Colonial Shooting space to be open and well lit and said the Virginia Beach space would have a similar feel.
The Richmond location has about 50 employees. The Virginia Beach CSA will have the same headcount, Coleman said.
Coleman said 60 percent of Colonial Shooting’s business comes from the range, and the rest comes from a mix of retail and the classes it offers.
The emphasis at Colonial Shooting is more on competitive shooting and personal safety and less on hunting, Coleman said.
“We typically don’t sell Saturday night specials,” Coleman said, referring to low-end guns. A high precision Cabot Gun recently sold at the Richmond location for $10,000.
It costs $15 per hour to rent a handgun to use on the range. Colonial Shooting has about 2,500 members at its Richmond location. Basic membership costs $34.95 a month and comes with unlimited access on the range. Constitution membership costs $200 a month and comes with amenities such as a lounge with poker tables and a pool table. All members receive a pocket copy of the U.S. constitution.
Another Colonial Shooting might open pop up in 2015, Coleman said, adding that he’s seen attitudes toward shooting change in America.
“There’s been a psychological change in the country,” Coleman said of increased popularity of recreational shooting. “People that had been drifting away from shooting are drifting back.”
One of the Richmond location’s 51 shooting lanes.
The residents of that Virginia Beach neighborhood will need to get used to the loud noises they’ll be able to hear day and night coming from the range. Hopefully, Ed will do the right thing this time and aim the muzzles of the range toward the street and not into the homes of those around him.