TRIADELPHIA — Wheeling native Jason Rine took a shot in the dark when he left his job with Regional Economic Development Partnership (RED) to become general manager of the new Guntry-West Virginia location at The Highlands.

He thinks he hit the bullseye.

And his initial idea to bring Guntry to The Highlands may lead to similar Guntry operations sprouting up across the country with the imprint of local architects and designers in the blueprints.

Rine was serving as business development manager for RED when in the spring of 2020 he traveled to the Baltimore area for a family function.

Plans for the event were delayed by the weather, and his brother mentioned he had received an email detailing the new Guntry shooting range location in nearby Owings Mills, Maryland. He, his brother and about eight others from their family ages 10 to 80 decided to go see and try out the ranges.

While there, the group met co-owner Brian Wolfe, who gave them a tour. Rine immediately decided it would be a good fit for The Highlands, and got Wolfe’s business card.

Two weeks later, he called Wolfe and asked if Guntry’s owners were looking to expand. Wolfe told him they were, but indicated they were more interested in doing so in larger metropolitan areas.

Nevertheless, Rine convinced Wolfe to give him a meeting. In September 2020, Rine gave a presentation at The Highlands Sports Complex to Wolfe and his partners Mark Gogol and Rick Landsman.

“We put a pretty compelling package together,” Rine said. “We got the Ohio County Development Authority to give them the property for next to nothing, and RED finances the building.”

Following the presentation, Rine set it up with the office of then-Gov. Jim Justice that the governor would call the Guntry owners as they drove back to Maryland and invite them to the state. The move sealed the deal, as Guntry announced in early 2024 that they would be setting up a second location at The Highlands.

And Rine was asked to be general manager at the West Virginia operation.

“For a project like this to happen somewhere like this in the Ohio Valley, it takes everybody like that pulling in the right direction — especially when you’re up against the Knoxvilles and the Nashvilles and the Salt Lake Cities and the Atlantas,” he explained.

“We don’t have that MSA. We don’t have that population. What we did have was some people who saw this potentially being a great fit for this community because of its proximity to Interstate 70 and Western Pennsylvania,” he said.

Rine said he himself is not “a gun guy,” but he is not regretting his decision to manage Guntry’s new location in Ohio County.

“I’m a business guy, and I saw it as a tremendous business opportunity for the Ohio Valley — and for Guntry, too,” he continued. “It was a very difficult decision for me to leave RED. I truly believe in the mission of RED and the people who work there. I think RED is one of the two or three most important organizations in the Ohio Valley. They do amazing work. Nobody ever hears about it. Nobody gets the credit for it.”

In the future, Rine foresees more Guntry locations happening across the nation using The Highlands location’s blueprints.

“The location in Baltimore was a repurposed credit card processing facility, so they made do with the space that they had,” Rine said. “This is the first Guntry that was built to spec. M&G, the local architecture company, did the plans with JD&E and the guys from Guntry. They knew what they wanted after operating a range.

“They put this plan together, and who knows?”

He expects at least six-to-eight more Guntry locations to be constructed.

“But this will be the blueprint going forward — this specific building, the way it was designed,” Rine said.