Vegas Tactical Adventures offers extreme corporate retreat

Vegas Tactical Adventures, about seven miles from the Las Vegas Strip, is something of an extreme experience in the world of corporate excursions. Based on intense counter terrorism training, it is designed to help establish a bond between co-workers, said company founder Doron Benbenisty.

Those who endure any of several customized challenges learn everything from disarming weapons to throwing knives and jumping from a moving vehicle. That is, if they want to remain on land. Vegas Tactical Adventures, which is expanding its group packages, can also arrange for a helicopter shooting experience, in which participants fire at targets from the sky.

A company retreat typically includes a relaxing massage, soaking in a hot tub or unwinding in a sauna. All of that may be necessary after enduring a corporate team-building exercise at Vegas Tactical Adventures.

“This is a situation where at the end of the day, they’re sweating profusely, their minds are going a thousand different directions,” said David Martin, business development director with the company. “The feeling of a body of people tied together mentally at that point is amazing.”

Benbenisty, a former sergeant in the Israeli military, launched his counterterrorism school, known simply as CRI, 14 years ago for military and intelligence officers. Soon after, he realized he could open that business to tourists, as long as he tamed the training somewhat. The actual counterterrorism course can last up to four weeks.

“With the adventures, we wanted to instill in those people these unique skills, and also the mindset,” Benbenisty said. “When they walk out of here, it’s not like they walk out of a show. They walk out empowered. It’s almost like you press a reset button on that person.”

One of the instructors picks up the group at a hotel and drives them to the facilities in a rather undistinguished setting.

Even the location of the 3,000-square-foot facility sometimes raises suspicions of customers, Martin said. A “For Rent” sign sits behind bars in a window sill to make it appear unoccupied. The red brick building, with its gray garage, is identical to all the others that line Stocker Street in North Las Vegas. There is no sign announcing the company.

But behind the heavy gray front door, the walls are lined with men and women in camouflage fatigues holding handguns and rifles. On the other side of the conference room is a classroom with folding tables and chairs adjacent to a large open space with padded floors and rows of shooting targets.

But Vegas Tactical Adventures, where weapons are sometimes fired in the midst of a staged hostage situation, is more than a shooting range, Martin said.

“We’re much, much, much, more than a gun range experience,” he said. “There is absolutely no other activity like this in Las Vegas.”

In a storage area, Benbenisty keeps piles of handcuffs, rope, guns, helmets, masks, knives and a grenade.

The list of available experiences includes a secret agent adventure, a SWAT adventure, a femme fatale adventure, a spy girl adventure and a bodyguard adventure.

“You’re here for a very authentic experience that is extremely educational in a very specific manner,” he said.

Vegas Tactical Adventures can handle groups of as many as 20 people in the main facility, but Benbenisty has also taught groups as large as 200.

A three-hour session costs $400 per person, while a seven-hour adventure, including travel time, ranges from $900 to $1,100 per person. There’s also a newly created $2,000 package that includes three nights at a Strip hotel, a helicopter flight over Las Vegas and a ticket to a Cirque du Soleil show with the seven-hour adventure. Prices may be discounted based on the size of the group.

“These are very specific things that you’re going to learn throughout the day that you can take away for the rest of your life and utilize if, god forbid, you ever had to,” Martin said.

Contact reporter David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290.