The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Dr. Daniel Halpert, Owner, CoCo's Adventure Factory, Indoor Family Adventure & Entertainment Park

Episode Date: January 23, 2026

The I Love CVille Show headlines: Dr. Daniel Halpert, Owner, CoCo’s Adventure Factory Indoor Family Adventure & Entertainment Park Located In Original Big Lots In Seminole Square 34K SQF, March/April, 2026 Grand Opening Trampolines, Ropes Course, Ninja Course, Zip Line Rainbow Nets, Soft Play, Toddler Space, VR Arcade Put Into Perspective How Hard To Open Business What To Expect? Membership? Parties? Goals? Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air Dr. Daniel Halpert, Owner of CoCo’s Adventure Factory, joined me live on The I Love CVille Show! The I Love CVille Show airs live Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The I Love CVille Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible, Rumble and iLoveCVille.com.

Good Friday afternoon, guys. I'm Jerry Miller and welcome to the I Love Seville Show. Thank you kindly for joining us on the last day of the week, the last show of the week, the last show before Snowmageddon, snowpocalypse, whatever you may call it. I hope you guys hunkered down. I hope you have something cold, something warm, something good to eat because we may be in our homes for a handful of days. But either way, we are lucky to be above the mud here in Charlottesville, Almore, on Central Virginia. And if I'm spending a handful of days with my wife and our two boys, our two sons, occasionally we call us. them terrorists, but we love them dearly. That's just fine by me. Today's program is one we've been looking forward to for some time. Dr. Daniel Halpert is in the house. This man is an entrepreneur. This man's a Renaissance man. This guy owns multiple companies. He's a real estate investor. He's a doctor. He's a Harvard educated. Johns Hopkins educated. And to put in perspective the approachability of Dr. Daniel Halpert, when you see him on screen, he's fresh from a construction site in construction clothes and not in a white lab coat, a doctor's coat. So much we're going to to cover on the broadcast. Of course, we're going to talk Coco's Adventure Factory, ladies and

gentlemen, schedule to open soon. I'm going to ask them probably the toughest question, when is your grand opening? That may be the only question that he kind of wiggles in his chair about everything else he's gotten buttoned up and planned and outline. It's opening in the OG big lots, the original big lots in Semmel Square Shopping Center. He's got 34,000 square feet, 34,000 square feet of indoor entertainment adventure fun. He's going to break down the offerings at Cocos in this 34,000 square feet in a matter of moments. We'll talk about what the man has on the line. We'll talk about how this kind of pales in comparison or the comparison aspect of the most

difficult things that he's done in his life opening Cocos. I would imagine it's probably at top the list right there. So much to cover on the program will highlight partners of the show. Charlottesville Swimming Pool Company and Charlestful Sanitary Supply. They've been long partners of our broadcasts locally owned and operated. 62 years in business. This Vermilion family that owns Charlottesville Swimming Pool Company and Charlottesville Sanitary Supply has run this business for three generations of family.

While being open for 62 years, the family is five generations strong in Almaro County on East High Street online at Charlottville Sanitary Supply. com. I heard, ladies and gentlemen, they have some of that. What is it, Judah, they got that they're selling some of the salt. Ice melt. They have ice melt still available at Charlottville Santerian and I don't think they're open tomorrow. They may, they may decide to open tomorrow, but get there today and get the, get the ice melt if you're worried about it. Thank you very much, Judah Wickcaro. 50 pound bags of ice melt still available at Charlottesville Sanitary Supply. Buy them out. Support the businesses that make this community better and the Vermilion family in Charlestville Santeries.

apply and body that. Judah Wickhauer, I think it's time. Goodness gracious, I have questions all over the feed. Ask the man a question. Judah Wickhauer, studio camera, then a two-shot, as we welcome, who's quickly becoming royalty in Charlottesville because what he's doing here. Dr. Daniel Halpert, my friend, good Friday afternoon. Thank you for joining us on the show.

Thank you for having me, of course. It's an absolute pleasure. I have so many questions already on the feed for you. I will get to as many of them as humanly possible. give this man some props, put it in the feed. First, introduce yourself to the viewers and listeners that are watching the show. I don't know how to follow up after what he just said. I can follow you around every day if you like.

Yeah, my name is Dan Alper. I live in Cole Pepper. I'm a doctor there, and I'm starting a business here. So, you know, an indoor adventure park. Hopefully the community will like it. I appreciate it. How does, this is a very interesting question here. How does a doctor get into serial entrepreneurship?

First, put into perspective here, he's very humble. I'm going to drag this out of him. Talk to us about the schooling for you to become a doctor, the education, where you went. Oh, you know, you do undergrad, then internship, and then med school, and then residency, and then fellowship. Are we talking Harvard? Are we talking Johns Hopkins here?

Yeah, yeah. My residency was at Hopkins, and my fellowship was at Harvard. This guy, one of the sharpest knives in the drawer here. You've got a medical practice in Culpever, husband, father. Yeah, father, yeah. Put in perspective how you became a serial entrepreneur. Why is serial entrepreneur? Yeah, I don't know.

It's challenging. It's fun. I think the main thing is challenge. It's good to battle something and have success. It gets addicting. It does get addicting. I feel the same way. It gets so addicting.

He has a construction company. He owns real estate. Yeah. Owns a medical practice. And now an indoor adventure park or an indoor adventure center, my friend, the show is yours. Talk to us about Cocos. Well, 34,000 square feet based on data, that goes for hopefully the success of it, but also the safety protocols that will implement. So I'm treating this as it would treat anything in medicine, which is, you know, we try to make everything based on data.

So I've done my research, and I've studied research that was out there. and yeah hopefully it'll be fun for the community. I have kids too. They're twins. They're 10 years old. So they'll be a part of it. And that was the big impetus in starting this. Lauren and Ivy is saying thank you so much for opening this.

This community absolutely needs this. Suzanne Bailey, Schimp, giving you props. Logan Wells Claylow giving you props. Viewers and listeners, put your comments in the feed. I will relay them live on air. Philip Dow. giving you props, Vanessa Parkhill giving you props. Where does this stack up some of the hardest things you've ever done?

It's tough. Let me just say when people, I don't know if people realize this, but when they thank me, which is I would never expect that. But when they thank me, it's very meaningful, you know, because you're doing this, you're working, you're investing, your money keeps going down and down. And, you know, you don't know if you're going to be successful or not. You don't know how the community is going to respond.

So when people thank you for bringing a business into the community, it's a lot more support than someone may realize. So thank you for thanking me. Erica Renee, giving you props and thanking you on the feed right now. Print, renew, and television is all over the broadcast. Ginny Who is retweeting what you're saying here on Twitter. All right, we'll take questions. We'll offer an opportunity for you, the viewer and listener, to ask Dr. Halpert what's going on.

I have a boatload for me. We broke this news last year with you on the show. Then it went viral. It stayed viral. I get peppered with Coco's questions more than pretty much any interview we've done. And we've interviewed senators. We've interviewed Ralph Samson, the greatest basketball player in Virginia history, the mayor. I mean, seriously, I sincerely mean that here.

Why do you think Coco's is resonating with so many people? I don't know. I don't know. I'm happy to hear that. I'm not sure. You know, hopefully it'll be enjoyable. I don't really have an answer for that. I'm just happy to hear that.

It should be a positive force all the way around. I think why it resonates, maybe answer that, is because as parents, all we want is something awesome to do with our kids. We want to share memories and life experiences and make them happy. And the playbook of Kokeko's so far looks like a playbook of joy and happiness for kids. And parents, that's all we want is for our kids to have a lot. that are better than our lives. And that's challenging sometimes,

but that you are helping with that. John Blair on LinkedIn, he says, please tell Dr. Halpert, that parents truly welcome and wish him the best in his venture. All right. Put in perspective,

the venture. Who, when, where, why, again, location, expectations. All right. Well, I guess this first started by me taking my kids to a trampoline park and then to a rock climbing place. And then I just had a thought,

why doesn't someone just bring this all together? So I started looking at if there are any companies out there that did it, and I saw a couple of companies that were doing that. But they didn't do it the exact same way that I would want to do it. So I studied this industry, and I go to the conferences, and I decided to go off on my own and do it. So about a year later, here I am on the cusp of opening day, which will hopefully be sometime in April, late March, April.

You know, the landlord's doing a lot of work also, so he has to wrap up with what he's doing. He's renovating that entire center. So the Seminole Square Shopping Center will look completely different, probably in the next couple of months than it does now. So everything's got to get incorporated into determining when my opening day will actually be. You know, when you opened in Seminole Square Shopping Center,

I was like, you know, a little interested about it. Okay, curious. Now it's looking like a genius move. Put in perspective some of your neighbors in Seminole Square Shopping Center. Yeah, you know, you have Ferguson's on one side, which is a high-end plumbing, stuff. place, but then you have smash pickleball. Seville Smash.

Friends of the program. Yeah, fantastic. And I was just there this morning and make sure, because I set up my sound system, I wanted to make sure I wasn't bothering them. Colleen Shear and Lauren Carbo. Yeah, Lauren Carver. Yeah, Chris Cater. Right, that's right.

I mean, they were jam-packed. So that's also seems to be a big positive boom for the community. You have Gracie Jijitsu. Yeah, they just moved in also. That's right. Front of the program, Brent Liller. Yeah, that's right. Owner of that.

Seminole Square Shopping Center is turning into the shopping center of experiences. And I honestly think that Cocoes and Seville Smash, Gracie Jujitchu, all these businesses that are about experiences as opposed to necessarily buying something on a shelf, can complement each other. Speak to us about the complimentary shopping experience of Seminole Square. Hopefully it will be the experienced capital of Charlottesville, the place to go if you want to have fun and do things. I genuinely think that's going to happen. Highlight the offerings inside Coco's now that we have more clarity.

All right. So hopefully it will be jam-packed with attractions that's designed that way. So there's going to be an indoor adventure indoor playground, soft play, trampolines, but immersive trampolines, not just trampolines where kids jump, but they see themselves on video and they do different things in the video while they're jumping. So it keeps them active and it keeps them occupied. Good for adults also. Ropes course. There'll be a rope's course. There'll be rock climbing.

Ninja course. Ziplines. Volcano slides. There'll be a separate area for toddlers. There'll be a toddler arcade, which is all age appropriate, of course. And then there'll be a pretty big arcade, about 2,000 square feet of arcade. That will include virtual reality. Probably virtual reality that most people haven't experienced because I go to these conferences

as I mentioned, and I purchased things that are on the cutting edge of virtual reality. There will be a cafe, party rooms, a parents lounge. The parents' lounge is designed so that they can watch their kids play. So it's on the upper mezzanine level. So they're kind of away from the chaos, but at the same time they can stay involved. That's awesome. That's awesome. Thank you.

Day pass, membership. How do we access? Yeah, so day passes, and then maybe it's four or six or 12-months. membership. You pay less, but you have to make an agreement to be a member for however long you decide. We're still trying to figure out the pricing. I guess it depends on everything at the end, how much everything costs. But hopefully it'll be affordable. I don't think it'll be anything astronomical, especially compared to other industries, other businesses in the industry. And then, of course, you can have your party there, so and so forth.

Travis Hackworth is watching in Danville, Virginia. He says, congratulations to Dr. Halpert, best wishes from Danville, Virginia. Now, if we could get someone in our area to open up something exactly like this, kids here in Danville, Virginia, are desperate for something to do, especially inside. I mean, you're an entrepreneur. You are the definition of an entrepreneur here, and entrepreneurs see opportunity everywhere. The most challenging thing, thing, at least from my standpoint, of being an entrepreneur who sees opportunity everywhere, is the older I've gotten is being selective with the opportunities that I choose to pursue. Because there's only so much time in my day.

And as I've gotten older and want to spend more time with my wife and our kids, I have to be extra selective here. You, an opportunity, do you see it everywhere? What's the game playing for Coco's potentially outside the market if there is one? I know we still need to open co-coes, but I guarantee you knowing this man, he's already thought about something like this. Anywhere you want to go on this, dude? Yeah, so if this is a viable business after a year, you know, I can get the system to be set up, you know, be somewhat independent of me where I can oversee everything. Because I want that time, too, of my wife and my children, then I would possibly think about expanding.

You know, we could look into an area like Danville, and I would just do the same data sets that I use for this one. And if this is successful, most likely it would be successful next time as well. Put in perspective data sets, what that means to the non-business person, if you may. Well, there are other companies out there that have been very successful, franchises. So that's a good start. And then what I did is I called different owners of these parks, asked some questions, and then I looked at their demographics that they're pulling from in their catchment area, and I try to see if Charlottesville was somewhat similar.

And I try to speak to the people that have opened up and have not been successful, and then I incorporated all that into data sheets, and I came up with some type of degree of confidence that Charlottesville should be pretty well received here. comments continue to come in. Annie Pena is watching in Smeyreda, Tennessee, and she's giving you some love right now. We have viewers and listeners watching in Richmond, Waynesboro, Harrisonburg, Short Pump, Croze, Ivy, Charlottesville, Culpepper, Green, Orange, Alexandria, Southwestern Virginia, Williamsburg, Newport News, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Allison. in town Pennsylvania. Questions for Dr. Halpert, put him in the feed.

Lottie Murray and Crozet. My family also loves the end games and the comic store in Seminole Square Shopping Center. He also says the pedestrian bridge to Seminole Square Shopping Center, huge improvement and amenity for Seminole Square Shopping Center. Carol Thorpe, the Queen of the Jack Jewett District, please inquire as to accessibility

or accommodations for kids and adults with special needs, sensory issues, fiscal access. there are not an opening, will he consider making adjustments in the future? Yes, of course. Sensory will have certain hours isolated or separate for whatever sensory needs are required, and everything will be accessible or accessible to the degree and extent that it can be accessible. This question has come in for Daniel Hopper, and this is one of the most common questions I have seen on the feed here. For toddlers, is there toddler opportunities? for potential parents that want to escape for their kids on a weekend.

Yeah, toddler space. So it's tucked away in the corner, the upper mezzanine level, right next to the parents' lounge. So it will only be for kids of a certain height or a certain age. And then they have their own little arcade, but not like an arcade where they just go on the tablet and kind of do something mindless. It's kind of like an immersive arcade,

where they're actually doing something or it's a ride. But certainly age appropriate for toddlers. and again, it'll only be for them, so they don't have to worry about being run over by the bigger kids. And then they have a bunch of attractions in their area as well. Annie, Pena says, you guys went to school together at junior high. She says, this is absolutely so awesome. I wish there was something like this where I am in Tennessee.

I'm so proud of Daniel and all his accomplishments. Annie, I appreciate you commenting on the show. I mentioned this live on air to Daniel. and I'm actually commenting that to her on the feed right now as five different states are watching the program right now. If you want to give Daniel some props, put them in the feed. I'll relay them live on air. This is a very good comment that's come in for Daniel Halpert.

Can he put into perspective if there's anything out there now that is something similar, or is this something that he's completely creating from scratch and they wish you the best of luck? This is coming from Jennifer, who's watching in Lynchburg. I think a lot of, I think this started with probably trampoline parks several years ago, and then trampoline parks realized trampolines are fun, but eventually, you know, it gets exhausted, you know, everything kind of has its lifespan. So I think a bunch of these big trampoline companies started incorporating other attractions into their parks.

The problem with that is when you have a trampoline park, not based on the amount of track that I'm planning on putting in here, you can only grow so much. Ceiling height has a lot to do with it. Zonemaw has a lot to do with it. The size of the building has a lot to do with it. So a lot of the trampoline parks are trying to catch up, but I don't know if they can do it to the degree that I'm able to do it. Conan Owen has a comment.

We'll highlight Conan Owen, who's a partner of the show, locally owned and operated Sir Speedy, Central Virginia, is who you contact for signage needs. He's a Darden graduate. Conan Owen is who is who. who my firm trusts with our 24 rental properties and helping our tenants update their signage, their outdoor signage, and also with our firm,

with our clients who need any signage needs. I will connect Conan and Daniel all fair together. He's got questions for you. He says, how are you doing with initial staffing, finding it easier, harder than expected, and what are major needs right now or what is something that has caught you off guard as of this point?

We talk about construction. I'm also the GC on this job. Yeah, I'm going to go down that road. This guy is GCing. This is crazy. Are we talking about the construction staffing? Are we talking to my workers? Are we talking about all the above?

Because there is somewhat of a myth out there that staffing is. I don't know if it's a myth. Maybe it's reality. Staffing is extremely challenging. It's tough. It's tough. Yeah, but you ought to keep pushing. You can't stop.

You don't have a choice. But yeah, it's difficult. For sure, there's a labor shortage without a doubt. But you have to deal with it. You have to make the best of it. Let me answer you this. You're a businessman. Is there a labor?

shortage or is their labor choosing not to work? I guess they kind of go one and the same. I mean, there's a diff. Yeah, I mean, we can talk about this forever and I don't want to, I don't really want to self to anybody, you know, but the, yeah, there's, I don't know. It's, it's tough to find people that are dedicated. Okay, yep, yep, I totally understand. This is coming from Ivy, Virginia.

What is a lava slide? Also, the mock up looks like it's glow in the dark. Is there a cosmic time or any glow of the dark elements? Can you put the rendering back on screen? So the question is lava slide, is there glow in the dark or cosmic time here? The volcano slide. The volcano slide's fun. Kids seem to really like that.

They enjoy it. Again, based on data, like how many of these things sell, what kids and parents seem attractions they seem to like, report liking. How the kids climb up, which is a challenge. And then if they get to the top, which is not the easy. this thing to do. They slide down. I'm incorporating a lot into the design.

So I wouldn't call it glow in the dark, but I would call it black light. So several of the party rooms will be completely blacklit if people like that. And then a lot of signage will also have black lights on it. So everything should pop when the black lights

are on. This idea, I think, is absolutely genius. But this idea is novel. how challenging was it to get financing to bring this to market with an idea that's so novel. Yeah, well, because of my other businesses, I guess I have, I don't want to say I have a back friend. Well, and I guess the banks trust me, you know, so it wasn't as difficult for me, I guess, as it would be for, I don't know how it would be for other people. But, you know, I have banks that support me. I guess they take into account how successful we've been in the past. So it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.

Comments continue faster than I can keep up. The comments are coming in here. This is one that constantly comes up as well, and I understand it because we're parents here. Can he put in perspective safety mechanisms? Oh, yeah, sure. Yeah, that'll be based on... He's a doctor, guy.

He's a doctor. I'm a doctor. I'm a doctor. My kids are going to be there, too. So it'll be based on data. So these parks are actually not that dangerous if you follow safety protocols. The problem is when you don't support protocols, Most of the injuries occur on the trampolines, but we are not having any high-risk trampolines.

So I can put that out there. There's no flip, no backflips, no, we're not going to have the high-end ones that are designed for professionals. It's going to be one child, one person per square. A lot of times when the kids, if someone's not paying attention, two kids start jumping and they're not synchronized and one kid gets hurt. So if you don't allow that to happen, you have a staff member there, and you implement safety protocols, study show it's actually safer than playing tennis, believe it or not. But safety protocol, you can't cut corners. That's the bottom line, and I don't plan on cutting corners. This question's come in for Dr. Halpert. Can you put in perspective

the hours during the week and weekends? What are the hours like? It will depend on how the community responds. So definitely on the weekend. Friday night, Saturday and Sundays are the busiest days. So those will be open pretty much all day on Saturday and Sunday and then in the evening on Friday. During the week, most likely it will be limited. And there's a demand for more hours. But during the week, we do want to fill those days up. So if we can't get kids because they're in school or whatever, we'll probably have things and events for adults.

Maybe we'll serve alcohol in the future, maybe not. But we can have like a Taylor Swift trivia night or something like that. Awesome. You know, groups, you know, charitable events, corporate outings, things like that. Jeremy Gonzalez watching the program. He says, hey, bud, this is great stuff right here from Jeremy Gonzalez. giving you some pros.

Where's Jeremy watching the show? Where's he now? Where is he in New York? Jeremy Gonzalez's giving you some love. You're getting love right now from Christine Wargo, from Sandy. Is it Gungerich watching the program right now? There's seven different states watching Daniel Halpert on this program talking about Coco's. This is just,

Coco's, the thing is like, dude, I'm absolutely blown away with the positivity. because like so much of social media now is divisiveness. Yeah, for sure. But like Cocos has been like a center aisle unifying like brand. Yeah. Like people just love this idea. Yeah, come in and escape from reality. And, you know, you don't have to worry about anything.

Hopefully not. You can leave all your problems on the outside of the building. Judah, I'm going to weave you in here in a three shot in a matter of moments. But Dr. Daniel Halpert, the kid inside you, what are you most excited about with Cocos? You personally? Probably the arcade. Yeah? Okay. Tell us about it. Well, it's all kind of edge arcade, all new games, and the virtual reality is pretty cool.

So it's not virtual reality like most people have experience. I think I mentioned that earlier. The whole machine is actually part of virtual reality, and it's synchronized. So when it's not synchronized, when what you see doesn't coordinate with how your body's moving, people tend to get nauseous and sick. but this shouldn't do that because everything should be perfectly located, perfectly synchronized, and your body and position should be perfectly located. James Watson watching the program here, one of the key members of this viewing and listening family. He says, Dr. Halpert mentioned that trampoline parks have shown to get a little stale after a while.

Do you plan to change around some of the entertainment and play structures in your space every year or two to keep it fresh? If necessary. Yeah, we'll keep data on how many kids are attending the attractions. They do get stale if they stand alone, but not stale enough to the point where I didn't want to include them. And it's a big cost to include them because a lot of people are cutting corners and kids are getting hurt. So it really drives insurance premiums up. But I still think it's important for kids. And our trampolines aren't just trampolines. We can call the original trampoline parks, say trampolines version 1.

We're like version 10 at this point. So it's incorporated with immersive reality. Like I said, there are televisions involved in video cameras. where the kids will see themselves jumping, and there will be a different background, different games that they can play. And we're going to work hard to keep it safe. I'm going to do two or three more comments

from the viewers and listeners. Judah will weave you in after that because this man is itching to ask you a question. Ginny Who on Twitter, the show's airing on 15 Twitter accounts, 15 Facebook pages, YouTube, iTunes, Apple Podcasts, fountain, Instagram, LinkedIn, Rumble, every social media and podcasting platform possible.

She says, homeschoolers love weekday options. And there's a significant homeschooling community in Charlottesville, Almaron, and Central Virginia. Just a heads up. She also says, let me say, thank you for watching. I gave her props while talking to you and doing the show. She also says this to you,

consider overnight lock-ins for Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops. I am considering that. and the I'm open to it, I'm considering it. The only drawback on that is having staffing. Staffing, having teenagers spending the night there.

Sometimes they can cause a ruckus. But I'm going to assume Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are probably more responsible than the average teenager. 100%. 100%. Comments continue to come in here for Dr. Halpert. This one comes in. This is from Short Pump.

Can you put in perspective of the restaurant and the food and beverage offerings? I try to eat healthy, and I try to make it as healthy as possible, but I don't think anybody else would buy that type of food. So it will be typical American fare, but it will evolve as necessary. So pizza, hot dogs, French fries, really things that people want.

But if there's a demand for other options, certainly I'll try to incorporate that. Are you outsourcing F&B or is that in-house? No, in-house. In-house. Yeah, we have our kitchen set up, and we're just waiting for approval from the Department of Health. And then, yeah, we have the menu pretty much planned.

the ovens and everything. Comments come in. Judah Wickhauer, three shot. We'll get you on screen. Let me know when that's ready to go so you can ask Dr. Hoppert the question. While he's setting up that three shots, is ready to go?

All right, Judah Wickhauer, show is yours. So my question to you is about, like, keeping things moving. You know, a lot of times, especially at, like, you know, parks, oftentimes, you see, like, really long lines. And so, for instance, like on something like the Ninja course where you obviously can't have

you know, two or three people running around and, like, knocking each other off things. How do you keep things moving and make sure that... We try to incorporate into the design. So, by having several attractions, we can keep pressure off of any individual line. Nice. So, like, get

someone on the zip line while they're waiting for... Yeah, and, like, the indoor playground is massive. I don't know what the calculation is, but I would say it's probably a good 25% of the park. There are no lines there. And the kids go in and they get lost in there and they come down on slides and they go in the ball pit

they climb up this I think it's like a spider net and there aren't any lines right so that gets pressure off the lines and then there's a cafe and the way it's designed is that hopefully I mean things don't always in theory don't always work on in reality but hopefully the line will keep moving you know yeah I mean just really comes out of design all right and and options you know so there are many options there yeah questions continue and if you have another one Let us know for Dr. Halpert. Let us know if you have questions for them, put them in the feed. I'll relay them live on air.

This is an interesting one, and first we'll highlight Joanna Halpert that's giving you some love. Christine Kushner Wargo giving you some love for. There's six different states watching Dr. Halpert on the Olive Seville show right now. Tina Wyatt, Brian, welcome to the broadcast. For the food and beverage, what is the plan for the restaurant? You highlighted some of the menu. Table service, sit-down service, pickup window. What's the game plan?

Yeah. It will be considered a full-service restaurant. How? This is such an operation. A full-service restaurant? Yeah, it's like four businesses, four or five businesses in one. What are the four or five businesses? Well, you have to manage the birthday parties, which is its own thing.

The restaurant is its own thing. I mean, you can open, there are arcades at their own business. That's three right there. And then you have the adventure park. Yeah. And then you have like corporate, you know, corporate events and things like that during the week. Unbelievable. This is unbelievable.

Well, you have branding spots in Coco's like Seville Smash House? I'm not sure yet. I'm not sure yet. Possible. I'm open to it. I don't really think there's not much room there. But certainly, you know, we can I put televisions there that do advertisements, but I don't think we're up to that point yet. Okay.

Okay. This question's come in. 34,000 square feet sounds huge because can he help us understand how big 34,000 square feet is? That's a great question for someone who's not in real estate. Yeah. This used to be big lots, people. Yeah, it used to be big lots. Yeah, I mean, it's a perfect example.

I think you had a furniture store here that just went out of business. I forgot the name of that, not Amy's or something. Did Ashley's? I think Ashley's one of them. And if you've ever gone in there, it's 20,000 square feet, right? Someone's significantly bigger than them. If you ever gone to smash pickleball, I'm about the same size that they are. And that used to be a marshals?

Yeah, it used to be marshals, right? So Marshalls, T.J. Max, stores like this. They call them big box stores. big lots of course is what I took over so the Ferguson's next door is also probably approximately 34,000 square feet 30,000 give or take. How tall are the ceilings? Ceilings, the roof of course is graded to allow for drainage. So at the front it's about 27 feet up and in the rear it's about 24 feet.

That's tall. It's tall, yeah, and you're working up there most of the time, you know, so you can't be afraid of heights and you've got to get used to a scissor a little. You know, so a lot of work happens up there. You know, we tore out the drop ceiling, and a lot of things are running along the ceiling Joyce, and then a lot of the attractions are going up that high, you know, about 22 feet. Philip Reese watching the program, he owns a very successful escape room business locally. And Philip Reese has this question for you.

What will the pricing look like, Daniel? I am still working on that. I'm not sure. Try to make it affordable. At the same time, we have to survive, of course. You're taking so much risk here. I mean, for the folks that, like, you've got to cover your overhead. How much?

Yeah. Okay, how about this one? And I'll follow up with the price. And I apologize for cutting off. Yeah, it's okay. What does the labor look like on a normal shift for Coco's amount of people? Yeah, I guess it depends if it's the week or during it on the weekend. Let's say weekend.

Like, busiest days is a Saturday? Yeah, Saturday. So instead of having a, right, it wouldn't be a skeleton. I mean, you're talking probably a good 15 people. That's a bowl load of labor. Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot of labor for sure. Okay.

So 15 people in the busiest day. price point. 15 to 20. That's a lot of people. I mean, it's got to, it probably would be born with a full service restaurant. Yeah, well, you need two people, right? One person operating each oven. But you need at least two people in the kitchen,

maybe two or three people in the front to keep those lines moving. Yeah. You need the POS for people to come in, two or three people, you know, and that doesn't even include any of the attractions and you're only at what, seven people. Yeah.

Right? And you need a person, you need at least one person in the soft play, indoor playground because it's big. The kids can get lost. You don't want to get scared. You need people. to support the rock climbing.

You need people to support the ropes course. We don't have any injuries, of course. So you have to make sure harnesses are intact and everything. So right there alone, you're already at how many, you know, at least 10 people. So are you, is it, is the game plan? Oh, then the manager, of course. Yeah. Yeah, is the game plan a person per attraction?

Well, it depends on the attraction, right? So some attractions don't require it. Like, you know, the volcano slide doesn't really require an attendant, right? But, oh, I didn't mention. We also have bumper cars. Sorry about that. I don't know if that's escaping me. Yeah, we have bumper cars.

So the bumper cars require one person, but, you know, rock climate probably requires two. Ropes, of course, will probably require two. You have one person in the front, one person making sure the kids are okay and not afraid. Because they are high up, too. You know, they're up 12, 15 feet. How many bumper cars?

We have 10. So 10, it's 24 by 40 floor. That's huge. It's big, yeah. It should be fun. Yeah, it should be fun. This is absolutely amazing here. you're general contracting a 34,000 square foot conversion from big lots into an indoor adventure park.

It's been a big project. He is the GC, ladies and gentlemen. He's wearing construction clothes. Look how humble this guy. He literally has paint stains on his sweater right now and was coming from the job site, literally GCing it, on the phone with contractors while waiting in the studio here. Subcontractors. It's subcontractors. And he legitimately is cooler than the other side of the.

pillow. Do you ever get frazzled? No, well, medicine taught me to kind of control my emotions. You know, if there's a code and I mean, really, that's where I learned it during residency. If someone's coding and you get nervous, you're not going to be able to think, you go blank, and someone's life depends on that. So you learn to control your emotions and, you know, people get worked up in medicine, people are sick, so I try not to get frazzled. I don't lose sleep over this. I lose sleep. I don't get, lose sleep because I get anxious.

I lose sleep because I have to work, which I don't mind the working. That's not a problem. I enjoy it. I don't like being away from my children and my wife, but I don't mind the working hours. Christy Lynn Beck says she went to Urban Air on Monday. She says the biggest bottleneck was not enough staff on each attraction, and she's very much looking forward to Coco's opening. James Watson, probably a random question,

but do you guys have any thoughts as to why we haven't had anything close to this open in years? You go to smaller towns in the U.S., and there's adventure parks, but nothing is cool as what Daniel is doing. I will try to answer that question. And I've been here for 25 years. I think why we have not seen something like Coco's Open is multi-prong, the answer. Cost prohibitive.

We helped Rock Revolution on Old Ivy Road come to market, finding the space, helping the business come to market. Mike and Jessica Kinnick own that. It's a very successful business. Fantastic offerings over there. Fantastic model. But when you have businesses that require that kind of capital up front and have a 10-year personal guarantee associated with the lease and require bank financing, in a lot of ways, there's the barrier of entry that's created. And the moat, I'm going to make a castle reference, there's like this protective moat around the business. Because once one is open, like, why would somebody out get in the game in a lot of ways?

You saw that with Rocky Top and Woodard Plaza. the Macatire Plaza, the rock climbing gym. Rocky Top, always busy. Rocky Top, parking lot, always full. Rocky Top, I love those guys. There's some elements of Rocky Top that could have been improved, but did not have to be improved because the barrier of entry to opening another climbing gym

was so significant that they didn't always have to be on their A-plus game. And that's when our clients, the Kinnix, came in and said, we can do this, and we can do it and then some, and they have at Rock Revolution. So that's kind of my answer of why we haven't seen a lot of this. We used to have Planet Fun, which you've heard that phrase before, off Berkmar and Rio Road. But that was more outdoor than indoor. I'll throw it to you.

Why? It's hard. It's hard work. This is the most difficult thing I've ever done in my life. It's hard work. It's a big risk. It's a big investment. And there aren't as many big boxes available.

I mean, maybe now they're coming available, but they haven't always been available. So it's not that easy to get one of these pieces of real estate that you need to buy is almost this is impossible. And to lease, you have to convince the landlord to lease to you. There's a conception, or I think a misconception that when people come to these parks, they don't patronize the neighboring stores and the neighboring tenants, and they hog up the parking spaces, and they stay all day, and they're loud and obnoxious, and landlords don't really like that, and the tenants, the neighboring tenants don't like that. But that isn't really true. So if you look at the data, if you believe in data, the stores do benefit from having these FECC,

which are family entertainment centers. And as for being loud, we just hooked up our sound system today. We turned it up and I went to both neighbors and we couldn't hear any of the music. So there are ways to mollify the sound. And tell the story about this. He told it to us off air.

What was the first song ever played at Coco's over there? Daniel Halpert was dancing to this? Everybody was dancing. Yeah, yeah. In the club. By 50 Cent, I love it. That should have been something that was on the social media. Right there.

In the club, by 50 Cent. And Halpert and the construction guys and you said it was bumping right yeah yeah we got a nice system in there it meant people out of fun it makes you feel good when you listen to music all right absolutely absolutely um talk to us about why you chose to gc this project uh well in my experience gosh i don't want to when you the more people you have the more sometimes the more difficult uh issues become uh certainly they become more expensive um but things become more complicated because if I have to have something done, now I have to go through somebody.

And then that somebody has to go through somebody else. But if I can cut that out of the way, and then you have to wait for that person to get in touch with you. And sometimes you're not that person's only client or that person's only customer. It's just much easier to do it this way. I was able to reduce, I think I was becoming, I became much more efficient. I can have my eyeballs on everything. I know nothing, there aren't going to be any corners that are cut. And I reduce my costs probably, I'm probably at 25% of what I would have been,

had I've done it through another route. And you're talking about millions at this point, you know, with the investment that's required. So you're talking just back at the napkin here, $400,000 or $600,000 you're saving just by UGC. Oh, I think I saved more than that. I think I saved $400,000 just from the,

I don't want to say mistakes, but say incorrect things that, everybody makes mistakes, right? So a wrong calculation, for instance, by some, just, I don't know, not my architect, by an architect. This guy is so humble. He does not want to. Well, I mean, if somebody makes, if somebody miscalculate something, right, the entire code will change, right?

Or sometimes, you know, nobody knows a whole code. So sometimes, you know, people in charge will say you can't do it this way. And that, and if you don't do it this way, all of a sudden your expense went up by over $100,000. But then you can review the code. And if you read the code and say, wait a second, I can do it this way. And you present that to people in charge, and they're open to that, which they are here, which is good, good thing, because nobody can be expected to know everything about the code, since it changes all the time. You can really reduce your cost.

So I think by – but if you have a GC working for you, it doesn't necessarily mean that GC is on your team and is going to try to reduce the cost for you because it takes time for him to do that. And also the more money the G.C. make – the more money that is charged and more money the G.C. tends to make. G.C., of course, is general contractor. So when you're doing it yourself, and you take all these things into account, you can really reduce costs and improve efficiency. And that's what I found to be the

case. You are such an impressive person here. Comments continue to come in. Travis, opening one of these businesses is so tough. You have to have the space to hold it, the ceiling height to accommodate it, the financing in play. It's really, really tough to get this off the ground, but it's also

extremely rewarding. This type of model is not for the faint of heart. Yeah, that's for sure. Is he right? Yeah, he's right. 100%. Yeah.

But if you want to do it, you can do it. You know, you just got to keep pushing. He's got to keep pushing. Why? I think I know the answer, but I'm going to ask you anyway. You're a doctor. You own a medical practice. You're living a good life.

You got a construction company. You got rental properties. Why do this? Yeah, I could have retired. Yeah. You do not have to do this. Yeah. But I don't have to work as a doctor either anymore.

I've been very fortunate. it. But I don't want to do that. I think I'll always be a doctor, even if it goes on to one day a week. I feel part of my community. And that feeling is very important for people. I don't think- Your practice is now two days a week? Yeah, two days a week. Yeah. So it's very social for me. And I'm connected to my community. And I think people don't appreciate how important that feeling is for happiness and I don't know, just to be part of something that's bigger than you. And I like challenges. I couldn't sit at home. I raise cattle too, you know, and I do it old school. cattle. I always want to expand my comfort zone. What kind of cattle do you raise? They're Angus, Angus and Herford. Unbelievable. What do you do with that cattle? Well, they're just kind of, I don't want to say they're my pets, but, you know, it's a hobby farm. Unbelievable. All right, the most challenging question of the interview, and you've crushed this. Fifty minutes goes by quickly when you're having fun. Wow. Toughest question. Grand opening. When? Yeah, we're shooting.

A lot of it depends on the landlord. The landlord's working on the exterior facade. So, you know, I don't know. I have to see how he's progressing. But I think we're shooting for late March, April. I would say sometime between late March and May, I think, to be safe. When you do have that grand opening, what's going to be running through your mind? What's going to be running through your mind when you see on day one of Coco's being opening,

on day one, a line out your door and kids running around smiling and laughing and having fun? Yeah, yeah. Well, God willing, that will happen. I hope that happens. What's on my mind is just surviving. That's it. I just want to make a profit. I don't even need to be profitable. I just want to just not leave money. Cover your overhead. Yeah, I just want to cover my overhead. I just want to survive at this point. So anything after that is like, you know, a cherry on top. How about a message for the community and before that message for the community, we'll close with this. You offer that message is the closing. Robert Graves is watching the program. He says, Dr. Halpert is my doctor. and I really, really believe in him. Things that he does and the way he explains things are very smart, and I can't wait to go visit this new adventure and support him. And that's from Robert Graves watching the show on Colpeper, Virginia.

The show is yours, my friend. Anywhere you want to go with a message for thousands of people watching you right now on the show. Well, I want to thank my wife, Lauren, my children, Ariel and Eden, of course, for supporting me, the greatest things of my life. And also, this community has been phenomenal. I can't believe, and I'm a humble, that people are thanking me for, doing this. It means a lot more than people may think. So thank you for supporting me. I have been absolutely blown away by the positive response to a business that hasn't even

open, that hasn't posted a photo online that has done. Just these two interviews, the community is craving this concept and craving this business. And I genuinely have been trying to figure out why. I think why that is is because parents just want what's best for their kids, and they know something like Coco's is going to offer an opportunity for parents to make memories with their children,

which are their hearts walking outside their body. That's why I think the positivity is so significant for Cocoes and what Daniel on his team are doing at Seminole Square Shiving Center. We'll follow it very closely. I think this guy is awesome.

I genuinely mean that. like the humility and the approachability of Daniel is contagious. He's got an energy that you want to be a part of. The show is archived anywhere you get your social media and podcasting content. All we want to do with the I Love Civo show is just be the water cooler of what's going on in the community. You just want to figure out what's going on in this community. It's all we want to do. Judah Wickower is behind the camera.

He's the director and producer of the show. Thank you to Judah Wickower. And for you, the viewer and listener, thank you for your support, your viewership and your listenership. This weekend, when this snow hits, stay warm, be safe, turn off the cell phones and the screen time, and go sledding and make a snowman with your kids and your family and your friends. For Daniel and Judah, my name is Jerry Miller. So long, everybody. It's going to tell us from the vice for all. You crushed it. Well, thank you.