Work record / Operating / AXT Axe Haus

AXT Axe Haus: I opened first, then went to the city

Costa Mesa had no category for indoor axe throwing, so I opened the venue before I asked the city for anything. The finished operation became the evidence, and the city gave us something it could cite.

The seat

I was the owner and operator of AXT from 2018, and I still hold it today as a long-term position. It started in space my design-build company, Tellus, already used in Costa Mesa. The work ran through Three Trails LLC, which has since become Common Ground Ventures.

Sector	Hospitality and entertainment venues
Type of work	Venue launch, entitlement strategy and a long-term position
Where	Costa Mesa, California
Years	2018 to present
How long	Eight years and ongoing
Through	Three Trails LLC, today Common Ground Ventures
Credits	Common Ground Jesse Fowler, Owner and operator, now a long-term position

What I was brought in to decide

AXT is an axe-throwing venue brand. We opened in October 2018 in a back suite of an industrial building, on Placentia Avenue in Costa Mesa, with a car repair tenant in front. Tellus already used the space. It was the first axe-throwing venue in Southern California.

The problem was the city's land use code. It had no entry for indoor axe throwing. The use was neither banned nor allowed, it simply was not there. So there was no license to apply for, and no earlier local case a planner could cite.

What we did

I read the code against the building before anything else. The use was unlisted, so the only path was a discretionary conditional use permit, which issues only on written findings of fact.
I could have filed an application resting on a comparison to an archery range or a bowling alley. I chose to open instead. Eight lanes and a lounge, adults only, by reservation. Every guest signed a waiver, each pair of lanes had its own instructor, and we followed National Axe Throwing Federation rules. Private groups and parties came first.
We filed the AXT word mark and logo with the USPTO across events, leagues, apparel, lessons, mobile rentals and running a venue. They were allowed in March 2019. The asset was the brand, and the room only had to prove it.
In November 2018 a neighbor complained about noise, which started a code enforcement case. We shut the doors in January 2019. From there the operating record became the application, which we filed on June 12, 2019. Standing by that decision meant four and a half months of trading, then ten months dark. Rent kept coming on a closed room, and I had a crew of twelve I meant to bring back.
We built the packet the way city staff write findings. Under each required finding we put a fact from the running venue and the condition that let staff write it down. The conditions were hours worked out around the neighboring shop, a valet, spacing between sessions, no alcohol, and closing early.
I went to the hearing myself. Staff recommended approval. On November 14, 2019, Costa Mesa's Planning Commission approved Planning Application 19-18 by three votes to two, and the chair was one of the two.
We retrofitted the suite to the permit's conditions and set a reopening for March 2020. A buyer from Riverside wanted all of it: brand, concept, units, equipment, website. We shook on terms on a Friday that March. COVID shut everything down the next Monday, and that ended the sale.
In January 2020 I wrote the reopening-year plan from the actuals of those first four months. The plan called for sales of $454,835 and net of $93,994, which is a 20.7 percent margin. Against the plan, the soft opening ran at 59 percent of the sales pace needed and 67 percent of the net pace, with a margin of 23.7 percent. That told me any fix would be about demand, not cost.
Today AXT is a current Common Ground Ventures engagement and a long-term position. I treat it as something to hold, not a sale to time. The asset was never the permit or the address. It is the brand, the concept and the method.

Results

The first four months of trading, October 2018 to January 2019, brought in $88,998.95 in sales and $21,072.85 net. Small groups, large groups and private events made up nine of every ten dollars.
Approval came on November 14, 2019, by a three to two vote: the first conditional use permit Costa Mesa had approved for indoor axe throwing.
The USPTO allowed the AXT word mark and logo in March 2019.
On the Friday before the COVID shutdown I shook hands on a sale to a Riverside buyer covering the brand, concept, units, equipment and website. The shutdown killed that close, and AXT stays a long-term position.
The opening got coverage in the Daily Pilot in September 2018.
A method I still use: find out which findings the body has to adopt, bring a fact from real operations for each one, write the conditions yourself, then show up in person.

The lesson

When the code has no category and nobody has set a precedent, prove the business first. The finished operation is your evidence.

Public record

Stories from this work

A vote is an opinion; a review is an analysisWhen an FDA committee voted on six peptides, we moved the access rating and held the safety and science grades where they were.Origin: AXT / Axe HausAn idle Costa Mesa warehouse became a permitted axe-throwing venue, and a sale that COVID cut short.Permitting a category that did not exist yetThere was no permit path for axe throwing in Costa Mesa, so I built the case myself.

Questions about AXT Axe Haus, answered

Firm record

Common Ground keeps its own account of this engagement: AXT Axe Haus on the Common Ground wiki.

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