A Utah company has big plans to bring a bounce to the region’s indoor recreation business.
CircusTrix, a fast-growing operator of trampoline parks, has just signed a lease to take 30,000 square feet of space in the former Breuners building near the Madison Avenue exit off Interstate 80 and intends to have its park, dubbed MojoDojo, open by July.
The Sacramento County business will compete with several existing local trampoline centers, including Sky Zone in Rocklin and Sky High Sports in Rancho Cordova.
But CircusTrix CEO Case Lawrence said he thinks his center will stand out by offering myriad new options for “aerial gymnastics,” including a challenging obstacle course modeled on the popular “American Ninja Warrior” TV show, parkour-type walls that enable participants to do “Matrix”-style flips, a flying trapeze and tightropes suspended over foam pits. Also available: aerial silk acrobatics popularized by Cirque du Soleil.
“We don’t even call these trampoline parks,” Lawrence said of the industry evolution in recent years from oversized bounce houses to facilities more identified with extreme sports.
“It’s kind of a mash-up of fitness, entertainment, pop culture and socializing,” he said of the attraction of parks from CircusTrix and others.
Lawrence, 43, was working as a commercial real estate broker in Fresno when the recession hit. He started looking for other opportunities and was impressed after taking his kids to a trampoline center at San Francisco’s Presidio.
He opened his first center, SkyWalk, near Fresno and followed up with one in Durham, N.C., near Duke University, where he attended law school.
The company now has 30 centers in 17 states and four countries, and thanks to a $20 million cash infusion from a Bay Area private equity firm, it’s opening another 12 this year, with the goal of having 100 parks in operation within five years.