FatCats Entertainment is set to open a new Family Entertainment Centre in Queen Creek, Arizona. The project was approved by the Town of Queen Creek City Council earlier this year. The Queen Creek Planning and Zoning Commission and Town Council have approved a rezoning and site plan for the project.
The new FatCats centre will house eight cinema screens, a 20 lane bowling alley, arcade games, dining area, indoor mini-golf and party rooms housed in one 61,000-square foot building, following the same blueprint used to create their centre in Mesa. There will also be over 330 parking spaces included in the redevelopment.
The plans also include the construction of a 38.5 foot LED animated monument sign. The sign will consist of twelve movie-poster cases, six wall-mounted identification signs and a 10-foot-tall, double-sided LED animated free-standing monument. There have been, however, some challenges regarding the design of the sign.
Planning/Project Manager Sarah Clark said “Currently, the Zoning Ordinance prohibits animated signs and the applicant is requesting one 38.5-square-foot LED animated monument sign that includes static images that change every eight to 10 seconds. The applicant has also proposed that the sign will be illuminated, but it begins dimming at dusk to 50%.”
Rob Friend of Fat Cats Entertainment said the static images on the sign will promote more than just upcoming movies.
“We project every eight to 10 seconds new releases and not only ‘coming soon’ or ‘now showing’ static images, but … we’re a unique family entertainment centre and we share the vision of the Town of Queen Creek in providing something very unique where we have lots of stuff under one roof,” he said.
“So it’s critical for our business not to be able to just show the movie static images but also to tell our customers and the public about events and special showings that we are having in the centre,” he said.
The new family entertainment centre was set to open by the end of 2020, however, due to the spread of COVID-19 in the US, the date looks likely to be pushed back to 2021.
