About Us
By Cary E. Riter – Founder, President and CEO City Beach, Inc.
“So how did this whole thing get started?” It’s all pretty simple, really. I’ve always felt that if you love what you do and do what you love, you can’t go wrong. Well, fate has a way of presenting opportunities. In my former life as a real estate broker in Los Angeles, my partner one morning was reading the Wall Street Journal and read something to me that changed my destiny "Indoor sand volleyball - Paletine, Illinios, what a concept." Having a pretty extensive background in volleyball as both a player at Loyola Marymount University and as a summer camp coach working for the United States Olympic Development camp program in the midwest, I had to go see what this volleyball facility looked like. I flew out to Chicago and visited the indoor sand volleyball facility in Paletine. After a few days I was convinced that I could do this better. For the next year I developed my version of the ultimate volleyball facility as I sat in a beach chair in Manhattan Beach drawing countless versions of this “business” in the sand with my toe; each version erased with my hand produced a clearer and more lucid vision. Eventually, the concept of City Beach was born I just had to find a site to launch. My older brother Steve who was living in the Bay Area eventually found an old warehouse in Emeryville which happened to be located next to an indoor rock climbing gym - City Rock. Ok, City Rock, City Beach - what the heck. Made sense.
With the initial capital raised through friends and relatives, we launched City Beach in 1992 for an initial investment of $125,000. An old warehouse in Emeryville, California became the Bay Area’s first “volleyball-only” facility, with 19,000 square feet consisting of two indoor sand courts (complete with heated sand), three hardcourts, locker rooms, and a small café. We programmed volleyball leagues, taught volleyball classes and held open play along with hosting birthday parties on weekends. I said to my brother Greg, “You pour beers and serve up that famous pasta of yours, and I’ll teach volleyball and put leagues together.” We didn’t make any money the first couple years, but what the heck, we were having fun, and what a great way to eke out a living – it beat selling real estate!
Barely having caught our collective breath with the venture in Emeryville, a real estate broker came to us in 1993 and said he had a perfect site for a City Beach down in Santa Clara, and he invited us down to take a look. Always searching for the next “perfect” opportunity, we were naïve enough to take him up on his offer. Next thing we know, we are signing a lease for 26,000 square feet (having no business committing to another venture, since we still hadn’t figured out the one in Emeryville!) Again, from friends and relatives (what great friends I have!) along with an SBA loan, we launched a new and improved version of City Beach.
This one consisted of six hardcourts, one indoor sand court, a bar / café, locker rooms and a mezzanine weight and fitness area. With not too much pomp and circumstance, we opened our Santa Clara site in 1994. One day, a woman named Molly Ording, who was working for Saratoga Springs at the time, came to us and said our facility would be a fantastic “team building” venue for local companies. We said, “Great, start it up and we’ll see where it might lead us!” Well, Molly kicked butt and started booking a lot of off-site company parties, which was a turning point in our business plan, as we were no longer only in the volleyball business, we were now in the team building business as well. Crafting and designing new party package offerings, we continued to ride the euphoric wave of corporate spending for off-sites for the next eight years, far exceeding our most conservative financial projections.
Due largely in part to the success of City Beach Santa Clara and unprecedented company spending as investment capital continued pouring into the Silicon Valley it seemed logical to go after another City Beach venture (Gemini's have entrepreneural ADD). So with the undying support of my wife Kimberlea (she had no idea what she signed up for) we started searching for the next City Beach location. This time we were going to build the “alpha” City Beach venue which would encompass a variety of programs, attractions and services that we were currently competing with, ie rock climbing gyms, conference centers, family entertainment centers (FEC's), restaurants, etc. and include them all under one roof.
Primarily financed by one major investor and other equity sources, City Beach engaged in a build-to-suit deal with a commercial real estate developer, Balch Enterprises, who took a chance on the company as we designed and built a 42,000 square foot venue consisting of an indoor rock climbing gym, restaurant and bar, four hardcourts, indoor challenge ropes course, executive offices, a family entertainment center complete with “Hyperbowl” virtual bowling, billiards, foosball, shuffleboard tables, and four outdoor bocce ball courts adjacent to a patio.
Today, the company operates the two facilities in Santa Clara and Fremont with over 100 employees engaged in delivering the best programs and services in the industry. City Beach is proud to host the largest junior club volleyball program in the world, with over 27 teams competing in the club program. Our corporate clients continue to choose City Beach as one of the preferred venues for meetings, special events and team building. The rock club has over 600 members who are constantly challenged by our 12,000 square foot gym, and our restaurant and bar has become a favorite for locals and sports fans.