Trampolaserrockball Park

Photos by Rachel Lock Photography

Walk in the front door and your senses will be stimulated with neon colors, upbeat music, peals of laughter and tantalizing smells.

Like its name suggests, Trampolaserrockball Park offers trampolines, a 5,000-square-foot laser tag arena, four 22- foot rock walls, a zip line, an arcade, a soft play area for younger patrons, and private party rooms. Users load money onto play cards that allow them to access various areas of the park for specific periods of time.

Owner Tanya Hines, who hails from Miami, said she opened the park in June 2015 because she saw a need for this type of facility in Topeka.

“Families were going all the way to Kansas City to find something similar,” Tanya said. “It didn’t make sense not to have something local.”

Tanya said she had been looking for a good investment opportunity, and research into viable markets found Topeka to be an ideal location. That, combined with the positive strides Topeka has taken in the past few years to promote growth and business, convinced her to move here and give her business idea a shot.

“Topeka seemed to be on the brink of life and death,” Tanya said. “But I saw more life than death.”

While Tanya actually moved to Topeka in 2010, it took her a few years to convince those around her that this venture could be successful. Having spent her adult life working with other people on business ideas, this was the first time Tanya actually took on a project of her own.

“This was my first monster like this,” she said. “But I hope to have many more.”

tramparcade

Tanya admits that she has had to overcome numerous obstacles to see this vision through. From financing, to hiring and administrative issues, to dealing with an ever-changing demand for new activities, Tanya has taken it all in stride.

In spite of a few skeptics, she has even opened a restaurant, The Palette, adjacent to the park. The full-service menu includes everything from burgers, pizza and pasta, to chicken gumbo and shrimp and grits.

While Trampolaserrockball Park isn’t in the black yet, it is doing better than she hoped. Tanya said she keeps finding new ways to add more entertainment options to the facility. For example, she plans to add a Ninja Warrior course later this year.

trampolines

While the road to success hasn’t always been easy, Tanya believes the risk will be worth it in the end.

“In order to have everything, you need to be willing to have nothing,” Tanya said.

WHAT’S WITH THE NAME? “It was a 2 a.m. thought. I felt like it would tell people what I had in here and no one else had a name like it,” Tanya said.