Business First, December 24, 1999
After a two-year hiatus, Chuck E. Cheese is coming back to Louisville at 2030 S. Hurstbourne Parkway.
The pizza-and-family-entertainment center will be housed in a former Discovery Zone location at Taylorhurst Shopping Center. It is tentatively set to open Jan. 7, following renovations.
“Often, it’s mistaken for an arcade or fast-food” restaurant instead of a sit-down family restaurant with entertainment, said Jon Rice, vice-president of marketing and public relations for CEC Entertainment Inc., the Irving, Texas-based parent company of Chick E. Cheese.
Yet the “primary reason” families come is for entertainment, he said.
Chuck E. Cheese previously had two Louisville restaurants. A Preston Highway location was opened in 1985, but its lease ran out and the store was closed in November 1997, Rice said. A second store opened in Mall St. Matthews in the mid-to-late-1980s, but it was closed in 1990.
The new location will have 14,600 square feet and employ about 50 people.
Parkway Construction Associates, based in Lewisville, Texas, is doing the renovations. Glenn Skelton recently was named general manager, Rice said.
“We wanted to get back into Louisville,” Rice said. “There are a lot of families with children.”
The average family of four can eat at Chuck E. Cheese for $20 to $30, Rice said. The entertainment, targeted for ages 2 to 12, includes a variety of video and electronic games, toddler rides, sky tubes with a ball pit, videos and a computer-controlled robotic character show.
Rice said Chuck E. Cheese officials have no further plans for expansion in Louisville. Although, it’s “presently underserved.”
“Given at the rate we’re going, there’s likely to be another location,” Rice said, explaining that Chuck E. Cheese plans to add 25 to 30 locations next year. Rice speculated that a future location might be opened in Southern Indiana.
Mike Daleo, district manager for the three Louisville GattiLands, which offer food and entertainment geared to families, agreed that there’s room to develop the combined concept in the Louisville market.
“We want to be about three more strong,” he said, regarding plans for more location. He would not disclose information about the locations of future sites. “there’s a lot of people that still don’t know about us.”
But Daleo said he does not consider Chuck E. Cheese a direct competitor because of differences in the restaurants’ concepts. GattiLand has entertainment for young children, but also older kids and adults. Also, GattiLand has an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Three other Chuck E. Cheese restaurants operate in Kentucky – one each in Florence, Lexington and Paducah. Rice would not disclose average sales per store.
The Taylorhurst store is company-owned and is one of 340 locations across the country, Rice said. Of those locations, about 58 are franchises.
CEC Entertainment’s annual revenue was $379.4 million in 1998. Revenue for nine months ended Oct. 3, 1999, was $338.9 million, up from $292.1 million during the same period of 1998.