South Milwaukee Two local businessmen planning to open Milwaukee County's only combined indoor/outdoor paintball facility hope for a direct hit with officials who will consider approval of the proposal in the coming weeks.

Thomas Redlin, 34, of Oak Creek and Scott Gorzek, 36, of West Allis want to open their business inside and around a vacant industrial warehouse building at 1200 Rawson Ave. Residents can weigh in on the plan during a 6 p.m. public hearing May 23 at City Hall, 2424 15th Ave., after which the Plan Commission will vote on a recommendation that could go to the full Common Council in June.

The facility would be only the second in Milwaukee County after Paintball Dave's indoor facility in Milwaukee's Third Ward, which has been a mainstay in the sport since 1988.

Paintball Dave's owner Dave Rudig said the sport peaked two years ago as numerous paintball fields across the state began opening after discount stores throughout the area began selling paintball equipment.

But recently, he has noticed a decline in business, and he is not sure if a market can support another field.

"Everybody who wanted to do it could," he said. "Now everybody's done it. So people who did it on a whim or impulsively now have left the sport, and the sport is left with people who like doing it, which is a smaller number of people."

As a result, Rudig said none of the paintball fields is "very busy" because they are all sharing the same customer base.

But Redlin and Gorzek, who toured six paintball facilities, including Paintball Dave's and others in Racine, Germantown, Mukwonago and Whitewater, said the market is not saturated.

Paintball offers a wide variety of different style games, but one of the most popular is "Capture the Flag," Redlin said. Two teams on each end of a field must attempt to get to the opponent's flag at the opposite end and bring it back to their station without being eliminated by a paintball shot. They protect themselves during play behind bunkers, barriers and buildings designed to help them maneuver around the field.

Facility with 5 fields planned

The South Milwaukee project, if approved, would open two indoor paintball fields as well as three outdoor fields, two of which would be tournament-style, or 200 feet by 100 feet in size, Redlin said. The other field will be a "woodsball" field, offering players the feel of playing paintball in the wilderness.

It also would include a restaurant and sports equipment store. The organizers plan to employ about 12 part-time workers.

Redlin and Gorzek would lease the building from a new owner, who anticipates a May 31 closing on a sale of the building, which was assessed at $699,300 in 2004, according to city officials.

One of the biggest issues city officials might consider is parking, said city building inspector Jack Schultz, noting that the site can hold about 72 cars. He said the city also would likely seek improvements to the facade and exterior of the 50-year-old manufacturing building.

Big hit with player

The proposal has the sure support of at least one area paintball player, Matt Ehardt, 16, who in his own effort to promote the sport in South Milwaukee last year gathered about 300 signatures that he presented to elected officials. He hoped they might consider incorporating the game into local recreation programs. The idea never saw any formal action.

"I'd just be really eager to see this go through," said the South Milwaukee High School junior, who has been involved in the sport for about six years.

Redlin said he was not aware of Ehardt's pitch to city officials until he made his presentation recently but noted it's that kind of desire by area players that he and Gorzek hope to tap in opening their business. South side communities have not been without recent problems concerning paintball vandalism, including nine incidents of cars being shot recently in Cudahy and two similar incidents in South Milwaukee.

But Redlin said he hopes opening the facility will give "everybody a place to play that's safe and supervised."

Mayor David Kieck said he will reserve opinion on the merits of the proposal until after the public hearing.

PAINTBALL PLAN

-- Residents can offer opinions at a public hearing at 6 p.m. May 23 at City Hall, 2424 15th Ave.

-- If approved, the project would open two indoor paintball fields as well as three outdoor fields, two of which would be tournament-style. The other field will be a "woodsball" field.

Copyright 2005, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved. (Note: This notice does not apply to those news items already copyrighted and received through wire services or other media.)

Copyright 2005 Journal Sentinel Inc. Note: This notice does not apply to those news items already copyrighted and received through wire services or other media
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.