CU Adventures in Time & Space planning to expand with ‘fantasy-themed mini-golf bar’ | Employment

URBANA — A local escape room is moving forward with a longtime plan to expand its business with a mini-golf bar.

Anne Lukeman, co-owner of CU Adventures in Time & Space, said that the long-awaited expansion will be named “Parcadia.”

“This 16,000-square-foot immersive fantasy-themed mini-golf bar will feature two mini-golf courses, private rooms for special events, and a medieval-inspired tavern straight out of Dungeons & Dragons (serving craft cocktails/mocktails, local beer and coffee),” she said. “We’re so excited to use everything we’ve learned building escape rooms in Urbana for the past 10 years to create mini-golf experiences that are unlike anything that exists out there today.”

The Urbana City Council will discuss a proposed incentive agreement for the project at today’s committee-of-the-whole meeting, set for 7 p.m.

Under the agreement, the city would provide up to $210,000 in tax-increment funds to MCDJ LLC, which owns the property at 302 N. Broadway Ave. and leases space to CU Adventures in Time & Space, City Administrator Carol Mitten wrote in a report to the council.

The planned expansion would take place in an adjacent vacant space.

The project is estimated to cost $1.875 million. Other funding sources include a $318,839 tourism grant from the state.

“CUA is one of the premier escape-room facilities in the Midwest,” Mitten said. “The facility expansion will offer an exciting new concept that blends mini-golf with technology, art and theatricality. CUA will offer an immersive experience using the latest technology together with mini-golf.”

“Players will need to dodge lasers, solve puzzles and escape booby traps as they putt,” the business wrote in its proposal. “Do they take an easy shot on Hole 2 or attempt a more challenging putt to save villagers from a monster? The game will keep track of the choices players make, to customize what they experience later in the course.”

They also plan to partner with local food trucks, as food will not be served at the bar.

Under the proposed agreement, the city would provide the proposed funding in five installments of $42,000 each, with the first being issued 30 days after occupancy is achieved.

The next four would be issued over the next four years, contingent on the business meeting certain performance requirements in regards to rounds played and food-and-beverage sales.