In reply to Simos:
Safe to say with our project the fit out of the wall and climbing surfaces itself is the cheap bit, reasonable size old church at about £300k. The building itself also needs about the same and could do with a lot more! Filling a big warehouse type building with top spec wall - like the boardroom project, these days would probably cost around 700k.
I believe the wall in derby managed it on a tighter budget by doing some self build some with a company but I may have gotten the wrong end of the stick there, either way they've done a cracking job...
In terms of revenue/profit it has to be done on a case by case basis, Big city climbing walls packed to the rafters will do much better than local walls but have higher overheads, the ones that seem to do best tend to be the ones that subsidise cash flow with a reasonable cafe, courses, online shop etc. Obviously the climbers moan about the walls being too commercial in those instances without realising that's why they only have to pay peanuts to get in
As a broadbrush figure our financial forecasts pitch us at repaying loans within 10 years, for us it's a life choice, we would easily be better off channelling the effort into a career but wouldn't get the same out of it. A lot of wall owners I've spoken to have said the same.
We're setting up as a social enterprise too which is true for a lot of walls, the owner founders will probably get their cash back but negligible return on the investment of time, effort and risk, going instead for a warm fuzzy glow... Have to keep you posted on whether I end up with one of those!
