So... there's a huge arcade here in Fort Lauderdale (Dania Beach actually) that I've been going to since 1996. My wife (who's lived here her whole live) has been going well before that. I haven't been there in a few months, but I got in the car with the wife and kid, and we were going to go play some games, maybe go on the go-kart track, and shock... CLOSED.
Sold out to a retailer who's going to build a strip-mall. There are 1000s of strip malls within 5 minutes of my house. What do we need another strip mall for???
I'm so bummed... the place used to be called Grand Prix Race-O-Rama, and then went out of business for a short while, being bought up by Boomers which is a large arcade / fun-zone chain which most of you guys in California will recognize.
Totally shut down. SOOO bummed...
When we would go, we mostly played the old arcade games, but I'm realizing though that arcade games just aren't that popular anymore. They rarely make new ones (new arcade machines) and the old ones are getting more and more difficult to maintain.
First GatorGum, then SpeedVision, and now Boomers... why do things have to change?!
It's sad when a nice family entertainment site closes down and gets bought out. It's happened here to a couple of places that I used to take the kids to. They too were replaced with strip malls that lasted less than 5yrs before they went bust. Now we just have a lot of abandoned buildings.
We had a Castle Golf and Games and it was combined with a Malibu Grand Prix race track and batting cages. It was opened in the early 80's and I spent much of my youth there honing my baseball skills and also playing miniature golf. It was just closed and torn down a little under 2 years ago. Before it was torn down, it was also acquired by Boomers. Apparently, they are a horrible company and fail at everything they run. I wanted to take my 2 little boys there but it is now a dirt lot
This is what it was:
[This message has been edited by IMSA GT (edited 04-25-2015).]
It's sad when a nice family entertainment site closes down and gets bought out. It's happened here to a couple of places that I used to take the kids to. They too were replaced with strip malls that lasted less than 5yrs before they went bust. Now we just have a lot of abandoned buildings.
We had another huge arcade "center" if you will, that also had batting cages, golf driving ranges, and other things... it was called "The Blockbuster Golf & Games." It closed down a long time ago, honestly... back in 2000. They actually tore it down in ~2004, and an IKEA sits on it now.
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Originally posted by IMSA GT:
We had a Castle Golf and Games and it was combined with a Malibu Grand Prix race track and batting cages. It was opened in the early 80's and I spent much of my youth there honing my baseball skills and also playing miniature golf. It was just closed and torn down a little under 2 years ago. Before it was torn down, it was also acquired by Boomers. Apparently, they are a horrible company and fail at everything they run. I wanted to take my 2 little boys there but it is now a dirt lot
Yeah... I kinda noticed that. When Grand Prix sold it to Boomers (don't know if they had to or were losing money, or whatever), but Boomers immediately closed down the roller coaster, which was basically brand new at the time. They had completely rebuilt it, all new wood. But anyway... they shut it down, was only in service for a year. Tore down the other building... ugh... yeah, they did a horrible job of maintaining the place. It was mostly down-hill... slow decline, but down-hill.
I used to spend a lot of time at the Malibu Grand Prix in Denver. Great place, and a lot of fun. Yet another place that's gone and has a strip mall of sorts on the property now.
I used to spend a lot of time at the Malibu Grand Prix in Denver. Great place, and a lot of fun. Yet another place that's gone and has a strip mall of sorts on the property now.
Oh man! Thanks for the pics.....I went to Malibu Fun Center many times in the 80's. I think I still have my "license" packed away somewhere. There was a similar place on 88th Ave. near the Mile High Flea Market, but it's been gone for a long time now. Another one between Loveland & Ft. Collins on 287....I think it's a bank now.
Did you ever go to Celebrity Sports Center on S. Colorado Blvd.? I only made it down there a couple of times before it closed down.
Anyway.....back when these places were built they were generally away from everything (i.e. cheap land). Now they're sitting on prime real estate and the owners either can't afford the increase in property taxes or it becomes more financially beneficial to them to sell out and move on. I've been watching a show called "Strange Inheritance" and they chronicled a 100+ year old beachfront amusement park that has been with one family forever. Costs, taxes and whatnot are taking it's toll and the family would make a lot of money by selling out or redeveloping the land (condos, etc.) but they refuse to do that. So there are still some of these old places left, although I don't think for much longer.
I think it is the insurance. A friend and I tried to take one over that the owner was getting too old to run and his kids did not want to be a part of. The insurance was 8 times what he was paying so we didn't do it. He sold it and they shut down the track right away. I think they still play mini golf there and they took our idea and turned the arcade into free play for scheduled parties.
I remember Malibu Grand Prix when Iwas a kid. Loved that place!!!
The Virago cars were so fast. I was too young for them but I would give the Ops guys 5 bucks and they would let me drive them anyway.
Pretty sure if you followed the money, you'd find that China or Japan is behind the land purchase, and they are going to put something up that generated more cash for them. They probably paid big bucks for the property as well.
Found another article on it... looks like they're keeping everything and moving it up to the Boca Boomers (never been there). That place is about 45 minutes north of here, rather than 10 minutes.
Pretty sure if you followed the money, you'd find that China or Japan is behind the land purchase, and they are going to put something up that generated more cash for them. They probably paid big bucks for the property as well.
It says they paid $29 million for the land, which doesn't seem like a whole lot down here. It was bought by a company called KimCo.
From KimCo's website:
"Kimco Realty Corp. (NYSE: KIM) is a real estate investment trust (REIT) headquartered in New Hyde Park, New York, that owns and operates North America’s largest publicly traded portfolio of neighborhood and community shopping centers. As of December 31, 2014, the company owned interests in 754 shopping centers comprising 110 million square feet of leasable space across 39 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Chile. Publicly traded on the NYSE since 1991, and included in the S&P 500 Index, the company has specialized in shopping center acquisitions, development and management for more than 50 years."
They're probably funded by China.
The odd thing is, I remember that company from one of the companies that offered to buy my land that I have in Lake Okeechobee. Which... I have no idea why. It's a small properly literally in the middle of no where about 5 minutes north of the lake. ...and it's worth almost nothing.
Man, I'm still really bummed.
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Originally posted by litespd:
Those cars look awesome! haha... so cool. They would never make them like that now... they'd be too afraid they would get wrecked.
[This message has been edited by 82-T/A [At Work] (edited 04-26-2015).]
First sorry to hear another place for kids and adults to play has gone away.
First time I ever tripped on acid was at an arcade like that, you know it's really hard to play pinball games when you see traces ! And driving go-carts is NOT a good idea.
Steve
------------------ Technology is great when it works, and one big pain in the ass when it doesn't
First sorry to hear another place for kids and adults to play has gone away.
First time I ever tripped on acid was at an arcade like that, you know it's really hard to play pinball games when you see traces ! And driving go-carts is NOT a good idea.
Steve
I guess I can understand it.
The reality of it is... South Florida has slowly morphed into something it never was. South Florida is becoming an extremely expensive place to live. I saw brand new town houses being built, really small town houses, like 1,000 square feet, "starting" at the $400,000s. I bought my house in the early 2000s... but if I had to buy it now, I could never have afforded it on my pay. Luckily, I've kept it... but they are building huge homes on small lots now. People are coming to South Florida and paying cash for their homes... basically the wealthy from South America. It has it's positives and negatives. The positives of course is that I basically live in the Monaco of America... the negative is that a lot of these places that were often for normal people, are getting wiped out as they are replaced by commercial real estate that are meant to support the ever-growing tourism industry.
Literally 1 mile down the road from Boomers, is a massive strip-mall called Oakwood Plaza. I hate going there because it's so packed. It's a mad-house. They have everything there, but I don't even really consider it a huge mall. They have Aventura Mall, Sawgrass Mills Mall, Broward Westfield Mall, and several other malls within ~10 miles. I'm barely scratching the surface. They're even building a mega-mall down the road which will have an indoor ski-slope in it.
So, I'm certainly not trying to sound non-capitalistic... but this is always the sad part of change. Reality is... the owner (Boomers) sold out... they didn't have to... but they got a nice check and ran.
Its the nature of the beast, out with the old and in with the new and the more money a contractor or real-estate firm has to buy these places from the owners the less places where a family can go to actually interact with the kids. I think that is one of our problems today, kids and their parents don't play together enough. Everyone is in their own little world online or on the phone texting a dozen people all different messages to all of them and no one ever plays anymore together with their parents. Its part of growing up and if we all let the kids just grow up online or in front of this electrical devise or another they aren't really interacting with other people face to face. Something I think we need more of in future generations.
Its the nature of the beast, out with the old and in with the new and the more money a contractor or real-estate firm has to buy these places from the owners the less places where a family can go to actually interact with the kids. I think that is one of our problems today, kids and their parents don't play together enough. Everyone is in their own little world online or on the phone texting a dozen people all different messages to all of them and no one ever plays anymore together with their parents. Its part of growing up and if we all let the kids just grow up online or in front of this electrical devise or another they aren't really interacting with other people face to face. Something I think we need more of in future generations.
I used to spend a lot of time at the Malibu Grand Prix in Denver. Great place, and a lot of fun. Yet another place that's gone and has a strip mall of sorts on the property now.
Cool! My lame clame to fame is that my dad is old friends with the creators of MGP and my dad was one of the contractors that built most of the MGP tracks around the country. I was too young, but somewhere in our family albums are pictures of my older brother sitting in what I think are the original MGP prototype cars.
[This message has been edited by OKflyboy (edited 04-26-2015).]
Those cars look awesome! haha... so cool. They would never make them like that now... they'd be too afraid they would get wrecked.
If I recall correctly, they were powered by a small Wankel rotary engine, and had a CVT transmission. They had a regular racing league, and there were some people who bought their own cars to run in the league races.
And driving go-carts is NOT a good idea. 
