Two indoor gun ranges in works in Collier County

NORTH NAPLES — Since she was a little girl, Pippa Steinhart has loved target sports.

"As a kid, I used to go to sleep-away camp and some of my favorite activities that I would always sign up for first were riflery and archery," she recalled. "I've always liked target anything."

It's that enthusiasm that's behind her plan to open an indoor gun range in an industrial zone off Mercantile Avenue, near Livingston Road. She's worked on the project for three years and expects to open by March.

Meanwhile, another Naples resident is gunning to open an indoor range off Vanderbilt Beach Road, near Airport-Pulling Road next to Agave Southwestern Grill, by August. His would be much larger — a two-story building with 25 shooting lanes.

Steinhart's range, with eight lanes, will be targeted more toward women, she said.

"A monopoly is not necessarily a good thing. Choices are good," said Steinhart, 59, who moved to Naples in 2008. "There is room for both of us. We are going to be very different."

Both ranges will include retail stores and shooting simulators.

Now, the closest indoor range is in Fort Myers. There are a few outdoor ranges in Collier County, but public use is limited.

Steinhart, a former nurse, has leaned on a friend, an avid marksman, to guide her through the process of opening her range.

"I retired two years ago from health-care," she said. "I find that retirement is not as much fun as it's cracked up to be. I've always worked and I'm comfortable with management. I have been in management for the majority of my career years anyway."

Her range will span 5,600 square feet and include a classroom for teaching all levels of shooters.

She hoped to open the range by Christmas of this year.

The hangup has been permitting, she said. She bought the building in June for $489,000 and got a partial permit a few weeks ago that allowed her contractor to start retrofitting the building, formerly the home of a high-end European kitchen showroom.

Her business, at 4651 Mercantile Ave., is called Naples Gun Range & Emporium LLC. She has two silent partners.

Rob Marcum, an owner of Lotus Gunworks LLC, will call his range The Alamo. It will be his third. He has one in Stuart on Florida's east coast and another in Louisville, Ky.

"We have been quite successful," he said.

The range in Naples will be his largest at 26,000 square feet. That will include 6,000 square feet of retail, a VIP area for club members and conference rooms for meetings and other events.

"We hope to forge relationships with law enforcement, with security officers," Marcum said. "We would be reaching out to all of them and offering them special discounts to do their training there."

Everyone he's talked to about his plan has been overwhelmingly supportive, he said.

"I think people understand what a nice job we are doing on our building," said Marcum, who is in his 60s. "Our building is over the top. It's as nice as any building in that area. It will not be a seedy gun store."

On the first floor, the range will have 19 handgun lanes with competition targets. There will be six rifle lanes on the second story.

He expects the range to help surrounding businesses.

In Stuart, he bought a shopping center anchored by a West Marine store and that store's business has increased 42 percent since the gun range opened there, he said.

He purchased the land for his newest range for nearly $786,800 in September. The land is 0.26 acres at 2390 Vanderbilt Beach Road. The zoning allows the use, but plans for the new building are still under review by county staff and Marcum awaits a permit to start construction.

"It's a multimillion-dollar investment to build one of these," he said.

Marcum has a background in manufacturing. In 2008, he sold a family manufacturing business, TopWorx, headquartered in Kentucky. But he has no interest in retirement.

Like Steinhart, he sees room for two indoor gun ranges in Collier County.

"It's great that she's there and the combination of us having 33 lanes I think that it will make Naples more of a destination to get involved in the shooting sports," Marcum said.

There are several indoor ranges in Lee County including Fowler Firearms & Gun Range and Shoot Straight. The Lee Sheriff's Office also operates one that's open to the public.The Collier County Sheriff's Office has an outdoor range, off 70th Avenue N.E. in Golden Gate Estates. It's used for training, but it's open to the public at times.

"People are interested in it," said Michelle Batten, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office. "People keep checking our website to see when it's open."

In 2010, the county staff received a request for a meeting about the possibility of opening another outdoor range off 70th Avenue N.E., but that meeting was canceled on Jan. 18, 2011, and there has been no further activity since, said Margie Hapke, a county government spokeswoman.

Other outdoor ranges in Collier are for gun club members only.

"We try not to compete against anybody. We are just trying to stay the way we are," said Lou Zalesnak, owner of the private LouLand Gun Club in Port of the Islands between Naples and Everglades City. "Members come out with handguns and rifles. It's kind of like a sport. It's like golfing."

Mike Christoff, a former Marco Island police officer who once operated a mobile indoor gun range in Collier County, said only time will tell if there's enough demand to support two new ranges. He was forced to close his range, called Mobile Tactics, last year after a fire sparked in his trailer. There was so much damage he doesn't know whether he will ever reopen, especially now with competition heating up.

His trailer mostly stayed parked and he did most of his business at 470 Commercial Blvd.

"If there's more places to enjoy the sport, then maybe more and more people will actually be involved," he said. "Only the market will dictate whether it will allow for two. We will see."