APOC co-owner Mike Merino along with Bud Myotte — vice present of the newly formed nonprofit Shooting and Firearms Educational Responsibilities — broke ground on the facility at the corner of Polk Street and Montana Drive in February and say that, when completed, the range will be the only indoor shooting facility within a 100-mile radius.

“There’s just not a lot of opportunities here for indoor shooting sports activities,” said Merino. “There’s some outdoor ranges, but with the weather here, you really can only use those half of the year or so.”

Currently the duo is on the first phase of the project, which includes a two-story building totaling 10,000 square feet, replete with an archery lane, retail store and three upper-story residential units. The shooting range will be located separate from the retail building and will have five lanes available, totaling 2,060 square feet in all. Merino estimated that the cost of phase one of the project will be somewhere in the $800,000 range and that it will be completed sometime in summer 2017. He added that phase two will involve a second 10,000-square-foot building and that their long-term goal is to have three buildings in total and a shooting range with 20 lanes.