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John, Eric, and Anthony opened Gamer's Realm in Vero Beach to give kids, teens, and young adults something to do. A safe place that embraces community by bringing people with similar interests together. Gaming.


You can learn more about our business by visiting our website:

 http://g-realm.com 

The Story



Over the past year and a half Gamer's Realm has had terrible luck, causing a domino effect of financial issues that really didn't give Gamer's a real chance to grow as a business.  Our journey began with an initial investment of $150,000 and a search for a place in Vero Beach.

After reaching out to the county to present the business idea, requirements were given in order for us to open. The biggest requirement being that in order for GR to open in Vero Beach, we needed to lease a building that had 100 parking spots available.

That left only a few locations. We ultimately chose the location near the bowling alley. While waiting to open two of the owners, John and Anthony, offered Free VR at many local events including schools, downtown events, and even visits to retirement homes to give the elderly a taste of VR. As we spoke to everyone in town, it became clear that Vero needed a place like ours and we were motivated to open.

In June we got the keys, and with the help of over 50 Vero Beach volunteers, we were able to open our doors in 2017.

Disaster struck the day before our grand opening when Indian River County placed a letter on our door saying that we could not open. There was a zoning complication. You see, the church that used to occupy our location rented all 3 buildings. Under the address, "927 14th lane" they were zoned as an assembly. After the church moved out, we took over a portion of their old location, "925". 925 was zoned as an office from many years prior.

In result, we had to cancel our grand opening and work with the owners of the building to satisfy the county. This ultimately took about 5 months to complete. 

This pushed our grand opening to September 2017, and Hurricane Irma was so excited about GR opening that she decided to come visit Vero Beach. 

Between the hurricane, and our grand opening being squished by IRC, we ended up losing about $25,000. In order to stay open and keep our staff employed, we opened up a credit line with Wells Fargo, and thus started our business 25 grand in the hole. 

The following year was full of learning and growing the business. We hit a few more snags. Two major air conditioning expenses that totaled 15k all ended up on our credit card. 

That brings us to September and October of 2018. Our local economy took a hit due to the red tide. Many small businesses in town suffered due to delayed season. At the same time, Vero Beach electric decided to start price gouging.  Our electric bill went from $900 to $1600 even though we have the same K/W hours on the bill. 

We are reaching out to our community in the hopes of being able to keep our doors open and continue to be a source of entertainment in Vero Beach. With your combined donation, we can clear out our debt and work on growing our business, remaining a fixture in our town.