A new family fun center in Grand Island is one step closer to become a reality.
Castaways will feature mini-golf, duckpin bowling, laser tag, redemption arcade and more. The total project is expected to cost $7.3 million.
The roughly 5.6 acres of undeveloped property is located at the corner of Faidley Avenue and Claude Road.
A redevelopment plan was approved by Regional Planning Commission on Wednesday.
It will now go to Grand Island City Council for action on Oct. 25.
For the project, $1.9 million in tax increment financing is being pursued.
Uniquely, the TIF support would be shared by the City of Grand Island.
Per the redevelopment plan, the Community Redevelopment Authority and the city will retain 25% of the overall TIF for the project to pay for an extension of Claude Road, from State Street to Faidley Avenue, said Regional Planner Chad Nabity.
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“That will provide hopefully some significant traffic benefits to Diers and State and 13th and Old Potash and all of those,” Nabity said. “We were looking for a way to help pay for that, and this certainly would help.”
The property is zoned B2, general business, and is planned for commercial development.
“This kind of family fun center certainly fits in that,” Nabity added.
The area was declared “blighted and substandard” by the Grand Island City Council on Sept. 28, 2021.
Bruce Schreiner, of Schroeder & Schreiner in Grand Island, which submitted the TIF application on behalf of project developer Brad Kissler, called the project “a top-shelf family entertainment center.”
“It will also be a very significant tourist attraction for our community,” he said. “It will include a 20,000 square foot building and 100-plus parking stalls.”
The new center will employ nine full-time employees and 50 to 60 part-time employees, as well, added Schreiner.
Schreiner emphasized the project “cannot succeed” without TIF support.
They also must be able to “inaugurate the project” on Nov. 1, in order to be completed for the “2024 spring and summer cycle.”
The project is a personal one for Kissler, he told RPC Wednesday, as he is father to 10-year-old and 5-year-old daughters and a 25-year-old stepdaughter.
“It’s sometimes hard for us to find things to do as a family,” he said. “When we go on vacation we invariably find ourselves at this type of facility, where we can play miniature golf, on an equal level, no matter your age. We can have fun creating family memories in arcades playing games together, what I like to call high-five moments.”
Such a family center is “sorely missing” in Grand Island, said Kissler.
“You hear it all the time, people saying there’s nothing for kids to do,” he said. “I just finished a long career as an architect, and because my kids are very young I feel like I can’t sit around and do the traditional retirement thing. I need something to keep me busy and active. This is what I’ve landed on as a dream, to bring this to Grand Island.”
The redevelopment plan will go to City Council on Oct. 25.
If approved, the project will be able to meet its Nov. 1 start date, Nabity said.
“They can get started on dirt work, because dirt work can be done before the contract is signed,” he said. “He could be out doing dirt work right now, but that’s also pushing the but-for clause if you’re out there spending money.”
He added, “Once council has approved the plan, it’s just getting the contract in place.”
