A MUCH-respected regional businessman is celebrating the tenth anniversary of his popular trampoline park by investing £750,000 to develop it into a multi-activity hub for all the family.
Entrepreneur Austin Carney was an investor in Infinite Air Extreme Trampoline park when the venue opened in 2015, until he took over ownership of the Belmont venue in 2018. Since then he has steadily increased his investment, adding new areas and improved food offerings – including the Lickety Split ice cream parlour.
Now to mark Infinite Air’s first decade, Austin is spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on two major new areas of the park.
He explained: “We’re marking our tenth anniversary with a major revamp – introducing an exciting, fairground themed 18-hole crazy golf course and an arcade of traditional and new video games.
“Our vision is to build one of the biggest leisure destinations in the North of England, providing first class facilities for families to spend the entire day with us. There’ll be something for everyone – from three-month-olds to 90-year-olds.”
“So, we’ll have the tots playing in our soft play area; children playing in the main area of the trampoline park; older children enjoying themselves in our VALO interactive gaming environment; teenagers playing traditional and the latest games in our arcade and adults – and all the family – having a great time on our new crazy golf course.”
Austin estimates the revamp will create six new jobs, adding to the 40 jobs already at the site.
Born into a family of bakers in Sunderland, Austin entered the world of betting and bookmakers when he joined bookmakers Gus Carter aged 16. While working his way up within the company, Austin was learning about dog racing at Sunderland Greyhound Stadium, where he worked free of charge for a family friend.
After ten years at Gus Carter, Austin and a friend bought up bookmakers Reuben Page, expanding the company from six to 59 shops across the UK before selling it in 2007. He then helped launch another bookmakers, Pagebet, before leaving the company and spending more than eight years as a freelance betting consultant.
In the meantime, Austin was investing in properties and business opportunities – including owning and running Durham City Football Club, where he was also Chair.
Football has always been a passion and in 2008 Austin joined a group of investors in owning Soccarena. In 2018 he bought the six-acre site on Belmont Industrial Estate which incorporated Inifinite Air Extreme Trampoline Park, New Ferens Park Stadium (former home to Durham City) and eight Soccarena football pitches. Courts replaced pitches early last year when True Padel opened the region’s first padel tennis centre on the site.
“You’ve got to move with the times and adapt to changing leisure tastes so when the guys at True Padel approached us to rent space on our site, we realised the potential of what is one of the world’s fastest-growing sports,” explained Austin.
“That’s what we’re doing with our new Arcade and crazy golf course. Our site has to evolve so we researched gaming arcades such as Fairgame in Canary Wharf which has been so successful they’re about to open another centre. Meanwhile, we’ve watched the surge in popularity of crazy golf – the number of adventure courses has increased by more than a quarter since the pandemic.
“When it opened, Infinite Air was the first trampoline park in the region and we’ve tried over the last ten years to keep it fresh and exciting with the introduction of things like the Lickety Split Ice Cream parlour and our brilliant VALO interactive activities which have proved really popular.
“The introduction of our arcade and crazy golf course are the next step on this journey.”
The arcade will incorporate about 15 Sega games, including Air Strike, Hyper Cross (a brilliant snowmobile experience), Pac Man and Apex Rebels, and will replace the current inflatables area of the trampoline park.
Meanwhile, the crazy golf course, which is due to open in October, will include fairground-themed holes such as the Waltzer, Helter Skelter, Dodgems, Ferris Wheel and Zoltar.
For more information on Infinite Air Extreme Trampoline park, go to https://infiniteair.co.uk