The newest Andretti Indoor Karting & Games opened Thursday in Buford next to a monstrous TopGolf driving range and an eye-popping big Rooms to Go.
This is Andretti’s third build-out in Atlanta. It first opened in 2001 in Roswell but that location shut down early last year because the Andretti owners wanted to buy the building but were unable to do so.
Instead, the Orlando, Florida-based owners decided to invest $30 million into a sprawling facility in Buford, far from its second locale in Marietta, which opened about six years ago. They hired a whopping 400 employees with a $15 minimum wage. With that pay, “we get quality,” said Edison Hamann, a partner who flew in from Orlando for a special media day Tuesday.
There’s a bar and a full-service restaurant, a Midway arcade, a multi-sensory 3D movie interactive experience, a two-level laser tag space, virtual reality games, a professional driving simulator and 10 lanes of duckpin bowling, a smaller variant of 10-pin bowling. The location also features 10,000 square feet of event space and is already booking birthday parties, corporate meetings and other gatherings.
Other Andretti locations already host 65 to 100 birthday parties a week, Hamann said. He said wealthy famous folks have rented out an entire Andretti for two hours at a time at an enormous fee.
The owners hope to capitalize on the rapid growth in Gwinnett County, tapping potential customers from all over metro Atlanta, Gainesville and Athens.
“We already have experience in Georgia,” Hamann said. “We have a name that’s known.”
Patrons can easily spend $50 to $60 a trip, but he thinks it’s worth it: “It’s a clean, safe quality experience.” (You can check out online specials, a la carte pricing and package deals here.)
While the original Roswell site had a flat track, this new version is a bi-level affair with sharper turns and more modern electric karts, which create genuine Indy car sounds. The karts also have a “turbo boost” button enabling drivers to gain speed for three seconds once per lap at their discretion.
There are two overlapping tracks for teens and adults and a separate smaller third track for younger kids. (The Marietta location recently shut down its track for renovations and will use similar layouts and technology as the Buford one when it reopens next month.)
Jarett Andretti, a professional race car driver and one of the managing partners, said there are a lot of blind turns: “That’s what makes it fun. It takes a while to learn it.”
The first outdoor Andretti track was built in 1999 in Melbourne, followed by the indoor track in 2001 in Roswell. They also have three Andretti locations in Texas and one in their hometown of Orlando.
“We are very calculated where we go,” Hamann said. “We get calls from all over the country... We don’t think we’re the type of brand that will build 100. We think there are a good 35 to 40 spaces in America that can support this kind of investment.”
Hamann said Gwinnett County was easy to work with. “They really wanted us here,” he said. “If we do well, they do well.”
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WHERE TO GO
Andretti Indoor Karting & Games
2925 Buford Drive, Buford.
470-646-3278, andrettikarting.com/bufordgeorgia.
10 a.m. to midnight, Sunday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday
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