Red Dot Arms would love to have its own gun show. He have contacts with other gun show vendors and could pull something toghether that could be pretty good.
The only problem, we can't find a venue big enough.
We would need at least 12, 000 - 15,000 feet, with maybe some extra room for growth.
A plus would be easy access of I94 to get folks from Chicago and Milwaukee attend.
Do the owners of the old Walmart or K-Mart in Round Lake Beach ever rent them out?
Or what about the Rec Center behind the post office in Round Lake Beach? I would bet the Mayor of Round Lake Beach is a good guy (with a gun?).
Not sure how big the Rec Center is. The Walmart is owned by Round Lake Beach, and has been sold to Meyers. That's is going to be torn down shorlty for a new big store.
As for the Kmart, I'd hate to have a location established as the place to be, and then loose access because a Best Buy or someone else would move it.
But...thanks.
What about one of the hotels by Gurnee Mills? They should have rooms to rent.
Rec Center in Round Lake Beach says 50,000 sq ft but that includes the indoor soccer field and only has a Mezzanine for rent that is 9,000 sq ft. The Civic Center near there is smaller and more disconjointed. The Field House in Waukegan doesn't even have this much space. Libertyville Sports Complex doesn't have much meeting room space - 3,000 sq ft tops I think - but could use the indoor courts with the proper floor protection and they pulled the stick out of their butts about it.
The Holiday Inn has about 12,000 sq ft but will not allow it. For reference, this is the same size as the McHenry show. Before you start asking why one Holiday Inn allows it and another doesn't it comes down to ownership. The owner of the Gurnee one doesn't allow it though as I said in the other thread my belief is this could change.
Key Lime Cove has about 6,000 sq ft available. This would be a little bigger than the Antioch show. All other rentals are even smaller and usually hosting weddings/anniversaries/parties.
In Lake County the only venues that meet the 10,000 sq ft threshold are Lincolnshire Marriott, the Lake County fairgrounds, Libertyville Sports Complex, and the Holiday Inn Gurnee. The only one open to the idea is the Marriott and it wants a ton of $.
There is the old true value off if 132 that closed. I know thereby it out from time to time to the game shop