There is a new indoor shooting range coming to downtown Riverbank this summer as an extension of Kiwi’s Custom Guns (KCG). Last week Kiwi’s held a groundbreaking ceremony to kick off the construction that has begun right next door to their gun shop at 3332 Santa Fe in downtown Riverbank.
KCG Owner and Founder Lyndon Yates, KCG VP Pete DeMattos, Mayor Richard O’Brien, Councilmembers Luis Uribe, Cal Campbell, Darlene Barber-Martinez, contractors with Paradigm Construction, architects with API, Carlos with Tri Counties Bank, and Monica with the Riverbank Chamber along with others attended the celebration on Thursday, showing their support for the new development. There were pastries and coffee offered to guests.
“A long time ago I had this idea to open a gun shop and after I left Modesto PD my family came on board and helped me bring this to life,” stated Yates in opening comments at the ceremony. “The range is the next step in that evolution of Kiwi’s Custom Guns. We are not done for a long shot; this is just the first step. I appreciate everyone being here and supporting us through this, a big thank you to the city and everybody else.”
KCG was established in downtown Riverbank in 2016 but Yates had been manufacturing guns and restoring military firearms since 2012 in his garage. With over 20 years of experience as a Gunsmith and extensive training in firearms, the former law enforcement and U.S. Army infantryman, Yates has a passion and love for firearms including the mechanics and history.
“That (in the garage) is how it started but wasn’t the dream,” said Yates. “The dream is this. So to get to that dream I had to have help. Pete is my brother-in-law and obviously my sister does the books for me, my kids work here part time, my nieces work here part time, it is truly the essence of a family run business.”
The indoor shooting range will have five lanes that are 25 yards and will be rifle rated up to 50 BMG’s. DeMattos noted that there is nothing like this range in California that is open to the public with that type of rating. He said that the facility will be state of the art with updated shooting range equipment and climate controlled for comfort year round. The front of the range will have brick as it was important to Yates and DeMattos to keep the historic feel of downtown and to match the existing building.
“I wanted to welcome everybody to this exciting milestone in the project,” added DeMattos at the ceremony. “It has been a long time coming and it is a big step for our business. We are so grateful for the continued support from our friends and family and customers and business owners and the city of Riverbank. It has been great.”
DeMattos shared that Yates was adamant about staying in Riverbank and they are glad they did as Riverbank has been supportive of their business endeavors and vision.
He said, “You guys are truly a business friendly city and like Lyndon said we will be here for years to come.”
“We appreciate the comment about the City being business friendly but it is easy to do with businesses like yours,” offered O’Brien.
The Councilmembers shared the sentiment of excitement and joy of KCG being in downtown Riverbank and the opening of the new indoor shooting range this summer.
Yates, DeMattos, O’Brien, and Uribe grabbed the shovels along with Campbell and Barber-Martinez that joined them in turning the first shovels where the future indoor shooting range will be built. They dug in and tossed the dirt in celebration.
DeMattos is also the President of the Riverbank Downtown Bizco group that was formed in 2019 that supports the businesses downtown and to stimulate business and growth in the downtown area. They plan to partner with other businesses in the surrounding area to offer patrons discounts for range time or at other places like Pizza Plus and Coffee Bruin.
“We believe in everybody working together to make downtown Riverbank and Riverbank in general a better place and bring more people here,” expressed Yates. “Me and Pete have been talking about the parking lot across the street once this project is finished. We are actually considering redeveloping that and putting a building on that, possibly a restaurant. Those are some long term plans. We have a lot of good ideas. We love that the City has the same vision as we do for downtown. ”
The new indoor gun range will be open to the public and members alike. They plan to offer classes and have knowledgeable and experienced instructors on hand to assist with a number of things including learning how to shoot, CCW classes, advanced marksmanship skills, and hunter safety courses.
“We want to give back not only our expertise because all my instructors are prior law enforcement, prior military so we want to give people the tools to be able to protect themselves,” remarked Yates. “Shooting has become such a big thing in today’s society so having a clean, state of the art, safe environment to do that in is paramount. That is what we are doing here. To take all the years of learning that I have done and putting it in a practical application not only helping the community but also helping those people in the community with those needs is really huge for me. I am very passionate about what I do.”
