NOVEMBER 2020

ECONOMICS & enterprise
Urban Air Is Back Aloft!
BY PAUL NATINSKY
The COVID-19 pandemic has
been difficult for businesses in
general, but especially hard
for some. Urban Air Trampoline &
Adventure Park in Sterling Heights
finds itself in the latter category.
Owner Wes Ayar said his entertainment
venue was finally able to open
its doors on October 10, after 209
days closed.
Through the entertainment venue’s
hiatus, Ayar has relied on the
Paycheck Protection Program, other
loans, leniency from his landlord and
from the 130-location Urban Air
franchise company.
Ayar has owned Urban Air since
March 2019. The Chaldean News
covered the Grand Opening in the
2019 October issue, when Ayar had
high hopes for a booming business.
The indoor adventure park offered a
fun (and at the time, safe) environment
for keeping kids occupied.
About 30 percent of Urban Air’s
footprint is trampoline attractions.
The park also features a rock-climbing
wall, bumper cars, ropes course,
virtual reality experience, zip line
and other activities.
Urban Air provides year-round
indoor amusements. On its website,
the company describes itself as “the
ultimate indoor playground” for
families. It hosts children’s birthday
parties and touts a more varied and
expansive presentation than typical
indoor trampoline parks.
The company has been on an upward
trajectory, voted Best Gym In
America for Kids by Shape Magazine,
Best Place To Take Energetic
Kids and Best Trampoline Parks.
While now open, Ayar says the
450-capacity park is now limited to
120. Open day passes that allowed
patrons to come and go have given
way to scheduled time blocks. Mask
wearing and social distancing are in
full effect, as is enhanced sanitation,
which required hiring an additional
employee.
Urban Air faces a stiff challenge
to profitability under current COV-
ID protocols. Ayar says almost all of
the 130 franchises across the country
re-opened ahead of those in Michigan,
and began recovering profits
as pandemic protocols loosened in
other states.
“Our hope is to ramp up, little
by little,” Ayar said. He, too, hopes
slowly to return to profitability, but
says he would need to operate at 50
percent capacity, at least, and sell out
all of the time slots available.
“With the general public there
are two things right now. A) Most
people still don’t know we’re open
and B) The people who know we
are open are still not coming because
they are not yet comfortable, and we
completely understand that.”
Ayar is working hard to get the
word out that Urban Air is open,
clean and safe. Urban Air is working
with a company on “hyper-local”
marketing and hitting social media
hard, while the franchise puts out
national ads.
In addition to attracting customers,
Urban Air’s future depends to a
significant extent on the rules it must
follow going forward, particularly regarding
capacity.
“Twenty-five percent just doesn’t
get us anywhere because of what our
rent is and what our expenses are.
Twenty-five percent capacity just
wouldn’t allow us to make any money
or break even,” says Ayar. He says
the business can only sustain itself
under the current rules for a month
or two, without a substantial influx
of new money.
If there is no change in state rules
governing capacity, will the business
be able to continue?
“That’s a really open-ended question.
If my partner and I are willing
to refinance our homes and take that
money and put it into the business,
we can make the business float. But
as far as the business itself, a month,
two months might be all the business
could withstand with the current level
of capacity and the (the other added
costs and restrictions),” says Ayar.
Changes at least in process are
taking place at the state level. A recent
court ruling has shifted decision
making on Michigan’s COVID precautions
from exclusively under the
Wes Ayar
of Urban Air
control of the governor to a status
more inclusive of the state’s legislature.
It remains to be seen what effect
the move will have on businesses
limited by current rules.
“At the capacity that we’re at, we
would have to run our business close
to perfect to just get to a break-even
point every month with rent, with
our loans and our payroll and our insurance,”
says Ayar.
When we talked, Ayar said Urban
Air had been open three days. “The
experience for the guests seemed
to be positive. We didn’t have any
guests who had anything negative to
say, so that was a big plus for us.”
For now, trampoline and adventure
parks join the ranks of re-opened
restaurants, hair salons and recently
re-opened movie theaters trying to
figure out how to serve their customers,
pay their employees and earn a
living as they wait for rules changes
that allow them to increase their
bottom lines.
NOVEMBER 2020 CHALDEAN NEWS 35