Reopen the Crete Family Fun Center
Donation protected
We plan to renew and reopen a once dearly loved family entertainment center in the Chicagoland area. It was the home of the "Crete Family Fun Center" for more than 55 years and has closed a few years ago after the owner passed away approximately 2 years after the owner's wife passed away. It can be said that he may have died of a broken heart.
The center started off as the Spanos Open Air Market, Crete in 1929 and was converted shortly into a family fun center with the addition of a driving range. This started the FEC conversion to the once well known family entertainment center. In addition to a driving range, the center has a miniature golf course, batting cages, video game arcade, go karts and a pizza kitchen.
After the loss of it's owners, the company's workers became unemployed, economic traffic then started to lessen. Over the last 2.5 yrs, time, weather, weeds and neglect took a toll on this center, further tucking away the 55 years of lovely family memories. I recently inspected the building with construction professionals and we believe the building will not be able to handle the next winter. It will likely not be repairable there after.
The siding of the building is soft and peeling off, due to roofing leaks.
It is in desperate need of materials replacement and repainting.
The siding in some areas are dangerously ready to fall off as well.
You can see that the outside will need a new coat of paint around the perimeter of the building.
The driving range grass and netting has become worn due to neglect and would need a lot of TLC and replacement.
The bumper boat pool sits as a liability and requires to be filled to prevent accident injury or worse.
Weeds have overrun the miniature golf and therefor can barely see the beautiful parts of this miniature golf course.
Roof leaks have caused a lot of mold damage within the building. Complete escavation would be needed followed by a thorough mold removal and materials replacement.
As shown in the above and below pics, roof damage exists throughout the building.
Looters have broken in to steal and scavage the copper within the circuit boxes and conduits.
Below is a picture that shows the history of how famous this location once was. Notice all the photos of all the historic Chicago news anchors & sports icons.
As an army veteran with more than 20 years of technology development & management experience, my goal is to purchase the property, rehab it back to a safe area for kids of all ages. Then add many new family fun amenities. And build new game technologies that will create a brand new fun entertainment destination to create many new jobs both locally and throughout the US via the internet gaming development.
Our plan will be to repair the miniature golf course, batting cages and a portion of the driving range. We plan to add a ropes course, a live immersive technology gaming arena in the larger area of the current driving range, a zero depth water park, and convert the go kart track and garage into a indoor and outdoor gourmet hamburger restaurant. Inside the larger building, we plan to have a redemption video arcade with great prizes, a fresh and tasty hand made pizza restaurant, party rooms, a themed laser tag room, a gaming missions room where players can "CENERGIZE" their gaming experience using our top of the line skylake DDR4 gaming workstations designed specifically to give our gamers a strategically responsive advantage in tournaments and esports of any kind. Why spend $3,500 (+ more for games) for a gaming rig when you can sensibly rent ours and play any game you wish for a few dollars an hour! The coolest of the plans will be the creation of our 4D immersive virtual reality simulator pods we call CEN AVAWARS. At CEN AVAWARS our players at our gaming lounge will be able to play in simulator pods containing teams of two players who will each encounter an immersive 4D game experience unlike any other. All pod players will be connected to the internet for all to watch as they compete with each other in futuristic vehicles of their choice, all physically simulated.
If given the chance to rehab & reopen this center, we will make it an ongoing focus to continually create new jobs, keep developing new, exciting gaming technologies and new great family memories that will last another 55-100 years!
The center started off as the Spanos Open Air Market, Crete in 1929 and was converted shortly into a family fun center with the addition of a driving range. This started the FEC conversion to the once well known family entertainment center. In addition to a driving range, the center has a miniature golf course, batting cages, video game arcade, go karts and a pizza kitchen.
After the loss of it's owners, the company's workers became unemployed, economic traffic then started to lessen. Over the last 2.5 yrs, time, weather, weeds and neglect took a toll on this center, further tucking away the 55 years of lovely family memories. I recently inspected the building with construction professionals and we believe the building will not be able to handle the next winter. It will likely not be repairable there after.
The siding of the building is soft and peeling off, due to roofing leaks. It is in desperate need of materials replacement and repainting.The siding in some areas are dangerously ready to fall off as well.You can see that the outside will need a new coat of paint around the perimeter of the building. The driving range grass and netting has become worn due to neglect and would need a lot of TLC and replacement.The bumper boat pool sits as a liability and requires to be filled to prevent accident injury or worse.Weeds have overrun the miniature golf and therefor can barely see the beautiful parts of this miniature golf course.Roof leaks have caused a lot of mold damage within the building. Complete escavation would be needed followed by a thorough mold removal and materials replacement.As shown in the above and below pics, roof damage exists throughout the building.Looters have broken in to steal and scavage the copper within the circuit boxes and conduits.Below is a picture that shows the history of how famous this location once was. Notice all the photos of all the historic Chicago news anchors & sports icons.
As an army veteran with more than 20 years of technology development & management experience, my goal is to purchase the property, rehab it back to a safe area for kids of all ages. Then add many new family fun amenities. And build new game technologies that will create a brand new fun entertainment destination to create many new jobs both locally and throughout the US via the internet gaming development.
Our plan will be to repair the miniature golf course, batting cages and a portion of the driving range. We plan to add a ropes course, a live immersive technology gaming arena in the larger area of the current driving range, a zero depth water park, and convert the go kart track and garage into a indoor and outdoor gourmet hamburger restaurant. Inside the larger building, we plan to have a redemption video arcade with great prizes, a fresh and tasty hand made pizza restaurant, party rooms, a themed laser tag room, a gaming missions room where players can "CENERGIZE" their gaming experience using our top of the line skylake DDR4 gaming workstations designed specifically to give our gamers a strategically responsive advantage in tournaments and esports of any kind. Why spend $3,500 (+ more for games) for a gaming rig when you can sensibly rent ours and play any game you wish for a few dollars an hour! The coolest of the plans will be the creation of our 4D immersive virtual reality simulator pods we call CEN AVAWARS. At CEN AVAWARS our players at our gaming lounge will be able to play in simulator pods containing teams of two players who will each encounter an immersive 4D game experience unlike any other. All pod players will be connected to the internet for all to watch as they compete with each other in futuristic vehicles of their choice, all physically simulated.
If given the chance to rehab & reopen this center, we will make it an ongoing focus to continually create new jobs, keep developing new, exciting gaming technologies and new great family memories that will last another 55-100 years!
Organizer
Alan Danque
Organizer
Crete, IL
