Demolishing Fun - Fun City, Littleton, CO
Fun City was a large (144,000 square feet) indoor amusement park, geared towards kids. Just to save myself some time, and set the table for all the underdelivery and false promises, here’s a business description from Fun City itself:
“Fun City Family Entertainment is Denver's largest indoor entertainment center, providing some of the best attractions in town! In addition to offering such activities as go-karts, bowling, laser tag, miniature golf, a rock wall and arcade games, Fun City also features a special area for children with a Foam Factory, Inflatables and Little City. We also operate a full service kitchen and bar, serving up such delicious American fare as hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, wings, sandwiches and wraps. If you are looking for a place to host a birthday party, Fun City is the place! We specialize in children's birthdays, but also host adult birthdays, sports banquets, company parties and team building exercises, fundraisers, and bachelor and bachelorette parties! Book your next birthday or group at Fun City today, as we have package deals we can tailor just for you!”
Now, I have no personal history at all with Fun City. I’d heard about the place from people who did go there, but since I have zero interest in large indoor amusement parks, nothing stood out. Until they’re being demolished… Then I care! Then I’ll walk around the entire property on a cold, windy, early February morning, taking pictures of the demolition. So I needed to make a story out of the pictures I took. That means it’s time for more of my patented half-assed research! To the Googles!
Yelp!, and similar review sites are great sources of information, if you’re willing to wade through all of the self-centered tripe. I’ve had a Yelp! account for years now. I’ve never posted on it, and I never will, but I use the site pretty often. Typically, I ignore online reviews for opinions because online reviewers tend to make it more about themselves, than what they’re reviewing. However the reviews for Fun City were overpoweringly negative. What stood out is how they all painted the same picture:
“Ownership will not put the effort and money into properly running this business, so it is crashing and burning.”
Even the more favorable reviews alluded to the negative factors, but overlooked them since they did like what Fun City provided. Because I found these reviews fascinating, I decided they were this story. Picking out my favorite Fun City reviews from Yelp!, Trip Advisor and The Googles, I cut them down and scattered them throughout this piece. Didn’t edit them for grammar or spelling, because that takes away a lot of the fun! (Borrowed a few of their pictures as well….) Copied and pasted online reviews are in red.
2016 aerial photo of the Fun City property. (Included in a PDF I downloaded off the City of Littleton’s website, pertaining to redevelopment.) South Kipling Parkway is on the left of this photo, West Coal Mine Avenue wraps around the east and north sides. First opening in the mid-1980’s, it had several identities: Funplex, Mr. Bigs, Fat City and finally Fun City. (Not certain the order they came in, or if that’s all the identities…)
“It's in your best interest to go somewhere else and just put this owner out of misery and let to doors close for good. he obviously doesn't care about his business so why should anyone else?”
Another photo from that 2016 redevelopment report. The date on that report was April 12, 2016. So I’m assuming the pictures were taken around that time. Fun City closed permanently on May 31, 2015, so it had been closed for roughly ten months at this point. Looks to be in decent shape.
Last of the three pictures I cut from that 2016 report. This would be the north entrance, taken from Coal Mine Ave. By the time I showed up for pictures, there was nothing left of this part of the building. Without knowing, I’m assuming this was the indoor Go-Kart track, which used to be a roller skating rink.
Baby Cat is the official Fun City Office Cat, as featured on the official Fun City blog. I have a soft spot for businesses that keep an office (or shop) cat. Work is stressful enough, if there’s a cat around, it makes the day a whole lot better. The blog (which is still -obviously- online) was only used in 2013-2014. Mainly it was created to advertise specials and promote various animal charities. Which is cool. This type of place could be very beneficial to a community. If it is run correctly.
Which by every indication, Fun City was not…
“I have to admit it was pretty fun even if it was broken and crappy.”
Sunday, February 19, 2017.
On an early morning, post work photo tour. Today’s was Littleton Day! With my mission being photos of the Littleton area I lived in, between 2005-2006, and some of the parts of town I was less familiar with. Points of focus included an abandoned Fazolli’s. In February 2017, ex-Fazolli’s was being converted into a Rubio’s Coastal Gill. Which was done in less than 3 years, according to Googlesmobile drive bys. Today it’s a Freddy’s Steakburgers.
Key stop being the abandoned Safeway grocery store, at Ken Caryl and Pierce. I shopped here several times a week, when I lived a few blocks away. Didn’t know it at the time, but this building would be demolished just a couple of months later. 7-11 lives here now. From here, I drove north on Pierce Street to Coal Mine Avenue, and took that west. Which was a direction I don’t ever remember taking past Wadsworth, on that particular road. When Coal Mine turned to go north, I saw a bright blue wrapped chain link fence, around some sort of construction…
Surprised to find a partially demolished Fun City, behind the fence! Well, now I absolutely have to turn the car around and check this out on foot… Luckily there was a crappy strip mall across the street.
Parked my car at The Meadows, then walked over to the blue wrapped fence, and followed it counter-clockwise, around the entire Fun City property. This would be a frigid walk, but one that must be done. Even if I have no idea what I’ll do with the pictures.
Thanks to the Fun City blog, I was able to mix in some of their promotional advertisements alongside my demolition photos. And that’s a win for you!
“My wife and I went because they had their monday special of $1 games. My wife is new to bowling and wants to get into leagues. I don't want to spend a lot of money testing if she really wants to follow through with this or not, so we went here. I knew it would be busy, so we got a lane that was open with a broken lane next to it. Unfortunately, we had 12 teenagers check in on the next 2 lanes. Being raised by parents who drank bleach while pregnant they had no bowling etiquette. I went to the front desk twice to complain and nothing happened. On the 3rd time I asked to speak to the manager. I told her my issue and said either fix the issue or refund me. Instead of dealing with the issue and making the situation right, she decided to refund right away. Her excuse was it was a family friendly environment and she would rather refund me than fix the issue. The management at this place is absolutely terrible. The money they made off of the 12 teenagers is a fourth of what the 2 of us spent alone. This was our first and last time coming here.”
You started to lose me at the “parents who drank bleach” bit. I get that you’re trying to be cute. But the way it reads, you are acting superior, because YOUR parents drank bleach. Nice subtle slam on your wife. I’m sure she appreciates it. Hope she sees this and is reminded that you’re kinda douchey. If I happen to be responsible for your night on the coach, you can leave me a poor review. My parents didn’t drink bleach, so get some new material.
Yeah, I’m sure it sucks when “teenagers” ruin you and your wife’s night out. But you chose to patronize a bowling alley that includes Go-Karts, Laser Tag and Mini Golf. Did you think that doesn’t attract teenagers? I also question your math saying 12 people would only spend 1/4 of what the two of you spent. Unless you went insane and dropped $750 at Fun City.
Maybe you should speak to a manager about your poor math skills?
Peeking over the chest high fence, through some dying shrubs with Fun City behind it..
“Jesus lord in heaven, this place needs help…”
If by help you mean euthanasia, your prayers are being answered.
The southeast corner of the parking lot.
Not knowing for sure, my guess if this borough of Fun City was dedicated to Bowling. For some reasons the tan triangles alternating tanner triangles, implies bowling takes place under here.
“Despite the $1.00 bowling on Mondays, I just don't think it's worth dealing with all the frustration of sitting in a swelteringly hot room, sticky bowling lanes, and rude management. Very disappointing.”
Love the Comic Sans “Main Entrance” font… Kind of an odd look for the building. The main part is a greyish-blue, with lots of windows. The two buildings to the sides were dated tans and orange. Was a big fan of the light up oval signs near the roof, advertising Fun City’s attractions. In certain pictures, it appears they are still lit up. Of course they’re not…
“Absolutely a terrible experience. If you have children you don't care about, bring them here.”
I think this is my favorite review.
Inside the front entrance to Fun City. Photo from Yelp!, dated May 18, 2015. I wish it was clear enough to get a good look at the simple directory on the stand up sign. A Denver Post story announcing the upcoming closure of Fun City, stated that the entertainment center would close its doors May 31, 2015. A public auction where everything will be sold, would be held at 10am, June 6, 2015, at Fun City. Which was located at 9670 W. Coal Mine Ave. and Kipling.
A construction trailer was to my immediate left, and some other visually obstructive stuff was to my right. Directly in front of my photo target is a dead tree in a parking lot island. This picture is not worthy of being included.
Yet, I didn’t cut it…
“Do not go here!! What a waste of time and money!!! There is a reason they are closing!! NOTHING WORKS!!! The management is clueless, classless, rude, and only there for the quick buck. Owner refuses to repair the building, which is why they are closing. 5 years of lies about a renovation that never was going to happen. They may say it's because the land was sold, another lie! Place could have been nice, but the owner was only concerned about bleeding the pockets dry of the customers, instead of providing a fun place for families. Shame on you!!”
I think this sums it up perfectly. Ownership wouldn’t provide simple maintenance on a large building, including a 30 year old HVAC system, that couldn’t properly heat and cool the large spaces anymore. Machines that weren’t properly repaired to keep them running. Excuses to kick the can down the road, because the investments required to keep it going were never going to happen. So it sat and slowly fell apart, around both staff and guest. No one was coming here, so no one would work there. The ones that did, certainly weren’t going to care very much about it.
Yelp! photo of a bar named after cigarettes. Never liked those jumbo Jenga games. If you’re in a vicinity when they topple, and you’re not paying attention, the sudden crashing sound of 50 rounded off 2x4’s will scare the living crap out of you.
“Me & my husband went here last weekend! I had very high expectations as I had been here before when I was younger and when it was called "Fat City" and it was awesome!! But was kind of disappointed this round! Especially the day after! Although we did have fun, this is why... We never drink alcohol, but both decided to have a Margarita! We ordered them and they tasted terrible! After asking the waitress to give me a refund, she told me there are no refunds on alcoholic beverages & that you get what you pay for! I'm sorry...but if I'm paying $6.25 for a 16oz Margarita, I expect GREATNESS! Didn't get it! They charged $3.50 for a pitcher of water, $5 for a pitcher of Soda, $5.50 for a total of 6 fried mushrooms, and the same for their fried cheese sticks! Weren't that good! So we bowled our asses off, which like I said, was fun and did 10 games for just $19.48 which is a steal, however, when I asked for a "Print Out" of our games at the end of the night, the rude bitch at the front told me, "You need to step into the digital world! You can't take a picture on your phone?" all because she was mad that she was to stupid to figure out how to print it! When I informed her I had a cheapy phone that didn't do that and couldn't afford such a phone, she went on to tell me that I should try saving for one cause no one uses paper anymore!”
Yeah… Not so sure about this one…
Karen, you should know better… “if I'm paying $6.25 for a 16oz Margarita, I expect GREATNESS!” You’re expecting greatness in cocktails out of a Family Entertainment Center? Understand your surroundings… A large percentage of square feet in this building is dedicated to shooting plastic balls in the air. And you expect greatness form a Margarita? You also admitted you got a tremendous value out of what you paid for bowling, but you act all petty over the prices of food and drink. Fun City is a business, that needs to make money to survive. The fact they didn’t survive is on them for providing the type of service you’re complaining about. But you can’t whine too loudly about high prices, when that gripe is followed by you excitedly proclaiming the value was a steal.
As far as your print-out request, are you POSITIVE the bowling alley equipment is actually set up to print out copies of whatever you want? Or are you blaming the “rude bitch” for something out of her control? Doesn’t make her stupid if the bowling equipment isn’t able to fit your request. You already sound like a hand full over your disappointing margarita, so I’m certain you were just in a blaming mood. It’s always easy to take out your frustration on kids, isn’t it?
And if your phone is incapable of taking pictures, that’s on you. It’s not up to the world to accommodate your wishes, because you choose to not keep up with technology.
I should know. I don’t keep up with technology.
But I also don’t expect society to slow down in order to accommodate me.
The first Googlesmobile drive by was October, 2007. Back when Fun City was Fat City. The building is identical, but that sign is far better. Too bad the first wave of Googlesmobile photos are so poor, they aren’t very useful. Taken when battling sunlight means all detail is lost on the shadows. Still, that Fat City logo was pretty sweet…
Fun City went with this uninspired lameness. I did appreciate painting the spheres on the poles as bowling balls, but the size doesn’t really work. They should have been larger, to make them stand out. More I think about it, this sign is perfect for Fun City. There’s small fragments of good ideas, but an all around failure in execution. Whether that is due to lack of effort or unwilling to fund, is something only the former owners conscience can answer.
“We spent over $400 to be annoyed most of the time.”
Whenever I run into a building demolition, I always love to get a decent shot of “Intact to Missing.” Where part of the building looks like it still open and everything is normal, but a few feet away, there’s just a pile of rubble. Bonus point awarded here for the inclusion of the lame Fun City sign.
Fun City’s Mini Golf course, as featured on Yelp!, a mere 13 days before Fun City closed forever.
“Truly sad to see a place that was so cool reduced to this.”
Looking across the northeast corner of the parking lot. This suburb of Fun City was the first part to be torn down. Parts of the foundation remain, and a small pile of steel that hasn’t been cleaned up yet. Now with the building gone, you get a much better view of the Rocky Mountains!
I miss seeing the Rocky Mountains every day…
“We went on Saturday for a birthday party. The teenaged staff could use more training on customer service. Seems like they don't really care about anything. Also the prizes could be better for under 100 tickets. It was ridiculous what you could reedem for the amount of money these crappy prizes cost. The place has no air conditioning and everything there Is sticky and feels unclean. It's no wonder to me why they were empty on a Saturday and offer Groupons.”
A common theme in these reviews was dumping on the teenagers that worked there. Not sure what kind of jobs these reviewers have worked, but they NEED to understand that when you’re barely being paid above the level of “just not stealing stuff”, it’s damn near impossible to care about a job when the message from ownership is they don’t care. If I was one of those teenagers, who worked for a business that refused to make the simplest repairs to keep everything running properly, I won’t care anything beyond my meager paycheck. Sorry if that doesn’t jive with your ideals… Hard to give a shit, for minimum wage, when the out of state ownership group running the place, refuses to fix the air conditioning.
“This place has done nothing but go down hill over the years. The owners need to rethink their entire business.”
Ownership did scrape together a couple thousand dollars to establish (likely rent) a new “attraction” for the summer of 2013.
An inflatable water slide!
These have their purpose. But when propped up in the parking lot of a dying indoor amusement center, it seems really cheap, and almost insulting. The most common customer complaints are there’s never more than 2 operational Go-Karts at any given time, that none of the equipment in the ball pit works, the card readers on the video games won’t read cards, most of the bowling lanes won’t reset pins or return balls. Or that it’s 90 degrees inside during the summer, and low 50’s in the winter.
But yeah… Inflatable water slide…
Because that’s what the customers want from Fun City.
“You can just tell that no one cares about the place.”
Pile of steel beams in the northeast parking lot. From the photo of the inflatable water slide, I’m assuming it was on the opposite corner of the parking lot. This would be the northeast corner, so roughly where the shovel is on the left side of the picture. But that had been covered up by sorted piles of demolition. So mirror this in your eyes and mentally Photoshop an Inflatable water slide on top.
Better shot across the parking lot, past the foundation of what I suspect was the Go-Kart track.
“Expensive, dirty and falling apart. Virtually no toys in the little kid area. Bowling lanes were defunct. Moved us once but didn't help. Shut down again. My kids enjoyed laser tag (only 6 can play at a time so don't take a large group or go on a busy day). So frustrated we finally left. No towels in the bathroom, air dryers don't work and water fountain doesn't work. By afternoon (2pm) lines were so long for cars and lasers, it wasn't even worth waiting for for 2 11 yo boys. That says a lot when they aren't willing to wait to shoot guns or drive cars.”
See? Take the money wasted on an inflatable water slide, and use it to address some of the very legitimate complaints about your business. It’s not hard to figure out.
“I could keep going... Go anywhere else.”
Looking back at what’s left of Fun City, from the northeast corner of the parking lot. Beyond where the building used to be, are two tall, strange looking trees. They have significance to Fun City, so we’ll get to them in a little bit.
“At the laser tag we get bombarded by a teenage girl with a potty mouth that doesn't want to do her job tells us ehh I don't want to get up just scan your selfs in and go play no instructions on game play when we asked if there were any special rules or how everything worked we were told "just point and shoot how much simpler can it get" and then on top of that most of the vests don't even buckle!”
Again, that’s pretty poor customer service, if it did indeed happen like that. Not to excuse it, but I’d almost expect it. I almost respect it. As negative as these reviews are, they also describe the conditions the employees had to work under. If said employee has any sort of opinion of working with the public, that I share, they’re going to have moments where they’re just done with it. I had my share of F-this moments when working retail jobs. Whenever I’ve encountered that at a low level retail, fast food whatever place, I almost find it refreshing.
I get that most people don’t think the way I do.
“Place is a dump and everything is broken.”
Looking at this picture, really made me want to see more of the interior when it was open… To the YouTubes! Fun City had their own channel! They uploaded 7 videos, all but one of them in May of 2013. Most of them feature the employees dancing in various parts of the building. Which is absolutely perfect for what I was looking for! If you can mentally block out the people, it gives a great look inside what used to be here.
If you watch this with the sound off, you see a bunch of people being ecstatic and dancing about nothing, and I didn’t get the Macarena stuck in my head for several hours. Mute the sound unless you want to allow that earwig inside…
That being said, this satisfied some of my curiosity to see a place I can never see.
Piles of steel await their transport to recycling, just a few feet away from where they used to hold everything together.
“This place was the best about 15 years ago when they had laser tag upstairs and a dance floor on the skate rink at night on Fridays and Saturdays for all the teens. No one wants to ride those lame slow electric cars they got. The ball pit sucks and everything is always broken in there. I have been in the ball pit with my son 3 times over the last 3 years and even 3 years ago a whole bunch of stuff was broken in there. They need to shut this place down, get rid of the slow lame electric cars, turn that back into a dance floor on Fridays and Saturdays, get a better laser tag room, and redo the ball pit and redo the put put golf course....... Food also sucks!!!! Where is the poker nights too!!!!”
Having memories of this place that go back 15 (or more) years, and seeing it fall down this much had to suck. Especially given this reviewer went here as a kid and had a good time. Years later, returning with kids of their own, hoping to share the same thing, and everything about it is awful.
“I seriously made a yelp account just so I could warn all of Littleton of this shithole. STAY CLEAR OF FUN CITY!”
North entrance to Fun City. This part has been scraped to the foundation.
“This is supposed to be family friendly; we had to wear our coats the entire time. It was warmer outside when we left than it was in the building. The miniature golf had one hole where there is a leak from the waterfall and the bottom of the putting area is filled with water. There were not enough employees to run the place one guy was running between 3 different activities. The laser tag guns hardly worked. There were only two go-carts that worked. Most of the arcade games were broken. This was not worth the money spent. We will NEVER return. Honestly I want my money back.”
Amazing they lasted until May 2015.
Remembering back to the whole inflatable water slide debacle, I think it was likely blown up between the two orange shovels. Or the pile of dirt in the same general area.
“There are groups of menacing teenagers milling about inside and out, basically creating a threatening environment that made us feel uncomfortable being here with our small children.”
Really?!?
In Littleton?!?
This was the only complaint even hinting at the unsafe environment caused by local ruffians. Most of the reviews mention unsafe equipment, none mentioned managing teenagers being any sort of a concern. I would love to know the full story here, I highly suspect it was nothing like what she described. Betting it was groups of teenagers acting like teenagers. Hanging out in an environment that is partially geared to them…Yes, some teenagers can be obnoxious. Groups of them, more so. You treat them as you would bees. Ignore them and they’ll quickly move onto something else.
This is Coal Mine, not Colfax.
The roof collapsed behind the main entrance, with the supports taken away. Sucks, because I didn’t get to see anything cool that may have been left behind on the walls. Like signs, interesting colors and/or pictures. Identifying references to the business that operated here.
“Waited 30 minutes forLaser Tag. I'm not joking, we waited 30 fucking minutes. The dick wad running it would not let us go together for some god forsaken reason resulting in my wife and I splitting up in two separate groups... Not fun, fun city!! Vests didn't work, guns wouldn't shoot, nothing worked. Now I'll admit, they have a great setup there with lots of potential but it just didn't work.”
Dick wad?
Yelp! contains many reviews with the common complaint about the Laser Tag vests not buckling. Assuming the equipment came from some sort of vendor, who could easily be contacted to order some new vest buckles. Those new buckles shouldn’t cost a great deal of money, that it couldn’t happen in all of the years of reviews of Fun City. I’m sure fixing the guns would have cost even more…
If a cheap fix like that is so out of the question, you just don’t want your business to succeed. Either the money isn’t there, or you’re not willing to spend it. Fun City’s property owner, the California-based Rainbow Investments, filed for bankruptcy in 2013. Fun City was able to stay open. If you read them chronically, after the point of bankruptcy is when the Yelp! reviews became even more negative.
“Owner refuses to repair the building, which is why they are closing. There is no Heat on the main floor and the employees have told us there hasn't been for a very long time. 5 years of lies about a renovation that never was going to happen.”
Time to keep on my counter-clockwise route around Fun City.
Now approaching the northwest corner of Coal Mine & Kipling.
Go Karts, from the Fun City blog.
“Slower than molasses. The kid running it looked like he was contemplating suicide, and I can't blame him! It looked like a two or three person job with lots of hard pushing. Reminded me of child labor or something. Needless to say, after lots of waiting, go carts were a major letdown. They ran slow, the race was short, and the attendant was rude and yelled at my daughter multiple times.”
If I was a teenager, without knowing the full story, I could see the appeal of working here. You look forward to taking this job, because it looks like it would be fun. Not the same thing, but I worked at Hardees when I was high school (over 30 years ago now). The job sucked, management was awful and I made a hair over minimum wage. But hanging out with my peers and screwing around at work was a lot of fun. So working at an indoor amusement park, with a big buncha people your age sounds like it would have been exponentially more fun… And it’s run like this. So guess what customers… After a day of dealing with your entitled asses, for demeaning, inadequate pay, while taking shit from every level of management in the building, knowing none of the serious problems will ever be addressed, I’m probably going to be a little snippy.
Fun City can have cranky people.
Happens in every town.
Standing at the top of the hill, looking back at the Coal Mine & Kipling intersection, watching out for menacing teenagers. Such is life on the mean streets of Littleton, Colorado, at 8am on a Sunday morning.
Turning back around from my vantage point, high upon the bluffs of Fun City…
“It seemed like the staff were all ready to jump off a cliff, no smiles, no hellos, just huge downers.”
Looking down the west side parking lot, through the piles of recyclable metals, at the two fake trees. Kipling is on the right. What’s left of Fun City is on the left. Do need to note the parking lot lights. Unique design.
Fun City was basically three separate buildings, attached to form one larger ones. It was likely built in segments, as overhead images show. For demolition sake, it was taken down as three separate buildings. The northern building (which I’m assuming was for Go Karts) went first. That has been mostly cleared. The middle building, which was mostly mini golf and the three level ball pit area, was about 75% gone. The southern-most building (bowling alley?) was largely intact. Wish there would have been some light to see beyond the wall framing.
“So sad to see a place change ownership and go straight downhill.”
Too bad I wasn’t standing by watching when that large segment of roof collapsed inward.
“Our trip to suck city was like everyone else's. Things were broken, employees didn't seem to care care about anything. We couldn't play laser tag...it was "down". They didnt offer a discount or anything. Only two gocarts were going out of 6, so there was a line. The foam ball thing was fun, but half the stuff is broken in there too and its kind of grubby. We played mini golf and actually I think that was okay. The laser maze was ok. The laser tag was the biggest let down. We asked for a rain check and I had to be pretty persistent in order to get it, but finally they gave it up, so we finally went back today to play laser tag. I tried to call first and of course got sent to voicemail and I tried to call again and got sent directly to voicemail and then we just started leaving messages that were kind of funny and then they called back and yelled at us and hung up on us...lol..all we were going to do was ask if laser tag was open. The first vest we tried on didn't work and then after a while we just made the best of it and got out of there as fast as possible.”
Pretty funny to start trolling their voice mail.
The Ball Pit, from the Fun City blog. The blog failed to mention that none of the parts of the Ball Pit that make the Ball Pit fun in the first place, will not be operational when you visit. At least that’s what the reviews tell me.
“If you like to disappoint your kids, bring them to Fun City.”
And who doesn’t like disappointing kids?
Continuing my walk along the west Fun City limits…
“I’ve been here back when it was formerly known as Fat City, so when I recently returned I was absolutely astonished to what I saw. It's almost sad to know that a place that was once fun and vivacious, where countless birthday parties, weekend hang out, after prom, field trips, bar mitzvah, quinceaneras, bachelor parties, were held, is now reduced to a desolated wasteland! Fun City is now simply a shell of itself with haphazardly out of order games and equipments. The skating rink is now converted to a dinky little go cart track. And what is up with that creepy little miniature ghost town? I wouldn't dare touch anything in there it's a germophobs worst nightmare! Perhaps the only thing worth salvaging is the ball pit because the kids seemed to enjoy it. Sure a couple of canons may be out of order and there's nothing but a half torn bag to carry your balls in, but bless those children for not knowing any better! It's obvious that this place is simply a lost cause...Fun City is no longer fun anymore, it did not age gracefully. Years of wear and tear along with negligence is blatantly evident. It's antiquated and has seen better days as it's impending demise is almost inevitable.”
Well, it’s definitely a a desolated wasteland today!
Not too long ago I watched something on the YouTubes about demolition equipment. There was a segment of the video demonstrating the cutter attached to the end of that excavator. The cutter itself looks like two blunt surfaces, instead of sharp points like you’d expect. But the cutters exert such an incredible PSI, it can snap the steel beams in half. Or at least bend them enough to make neat sorted piles all over the parking lot.
In March of 2014, the Fun City blog was promoting a new boxing game: Punch-O-Rama.
Can you beat it?
Yes… But not at Fun City…
“Would I have a party here? No. Would I eat here? No. But sometimes it's nice to go to a hole in the wall where it's not over populated with snotty nose kids.”
Odd review… Of all the things you could compare Fun City to, a “hole in the wall” isn’t the best description. Also, kind of ironic as the key point to your reviews is: “not over populated with snotty nose kids.” And you’re talking about a family centered indoor amusement park. The desired audience clearly is snotty nose kids. Maybe he was being intentionally ironic?
More sorted piles of twisted scrap metal. Not much was recognizable, but at least there was some color in this pile.
“I decided to take my two children to it today. NEVER AGAIN!!! The food was disgusting, and we had to keep buying drinks because they don't do refills. Talk about cheap. The whole place was dirty, and half the games did not work. The last straw was when I let my little daughter go play in the little kid's area, and had seen a few kids playing with a used mouse trap. The trap had mouse feces on it. We did not even bother to use up the remainder of our time, we needed to get out, and get out fast. Spend your money at another family center, and stay far from this place.”
Okay, I’m calling bullshit (mouseshit?) on this one. Mouse feces are smaller than a grain of rice and are typically dried to the point where they don’t stick to anything. So if the kids were playing with a used mouse trap, the little turds would have rolled off on to the floor, as soon as one of the kids touched the used mousetrap. Now had you said there was mouse feces all over the carpet by the used mousetrap, that would have been more believable. Another thing to factor into your story, in order for it to be a used mousetrap, that would mean it had already trapped a mouse. That mouse would not have been just hanging around the trap, taking multiple dumps on it, before triggering the trap. It would attract the mouse to it, which would trigger the trap. All of which would happen quickly. Before multiple dumps could be left in the immediate area.
I’m not saying this DIDN’T happen, but there’s some holes in your story…
Also, “no refills” is the true bullshit here. Soft drink syrup is literally pennies on the gallon…
These “No Trespassing” signs were placed every couple hundred feet, on the blue wrapped fence. Had they not done this, I would have never known… Thank you, Contractor of Choice!
“This place is a shame and falsely advertises a good time and team building it was more fusterating then entertaining.”
Yeah, that does sound fusterating! At least it was entertaining after.
Another shot of the Fun City Ball Pit, from Yelp! This one from February 2013. I see lots of balls and no mouse feces. Even if those Ball Pit features didn’t function correctly, I wonder what happened to them when the placed closed. Did they find another home and purpose? Or were they left behind and destroyed when the roof collapsed on top of them? The even more broken pieces scraped up and sorted into parking lot recycling piles?
Wonder what a former employee would think of Fun City’s last few months?
“This place is a joke. I used to work at Fat City back when it was decent, but ever since it has gone down hill. So I took my family here for the first time in who knows how long and it is a DUMP! Machines are broken, the floor is falling apart, the wall is cracking, the stairs (both in the foam factory and going upstairs to the bowling area) have holes in them and give when I walk across. I was probably here for a few hours an when I went to go back into the ball area they said I wasn't allowed in without a band. Take in that I was in there with my kids this whole time until I got some food. The male manager that looks like a woman would not stop staring me down afterwards, it came to a point where I asked for a refund so I could leave and he would not do it and said if I leave I'm not allowed back, well buddy you don't have to worry about me coming back. This place is the worst!”
Now I want to hear from the male manager that looks like a woman…
Partially loaded trailer of scrap metal, soon to move to an entirely different city. There could even be some ball pit gun pieces inside that trailer. Though I really hope they’re now fully operational in a different Ball Pit. Perhaps at Fun Metropolis.
“This place seems run down and gross. A lot of unsupervised kids are acting like brats. The staff looks pretty miserable.”
But they can’t be miserable! This is a literal city of fun! Can’t you read the sign?
“I think this place needs to go out of business for the 5th time. Maybe that will help!”
At least this review offered some helpful advice.
Little Princess Dress Shop, from the Fun City blog, September 2013.
Guessing this was part of the “Old Town” area of Fun City. There’s a bouncy house… And some pop-up storefronts. The ball pit is behind this stuff. From the reviews, and the looks of things in the picture, there was supposed to be toys and games for the kids to play with in each of these “shops”. But they were empty, or had just a few dirty and broken toys for the kids to play with. Looking into those open “stores” doesn’t really imply fun, because there’s nothing there. What kind of fun is that? Probably should have chosen a better picture to promote on your blog.
Perhaps I should look at it as they are providing me a gimmicked abandoned building, in the form of a children’s exhibit? Teach the kids about how the Little Princess Dress Shop couldn’t compete with Amazon. So they had to blow out all the Little Princess Dresses at massive discounts and break their lease. So let the kids come and play inside their empty building, until Little Princess Discount Cell Phone Shop opens.
And now, I let somebody else take the floor…
“This place is 100% staffed by mental midgets. Go ahead... Ask the brainiac behind he bar for a glass of ice water and watch the bewilderment take hold. I was also charged for the water, since asked for it to go... And this is just the tip of the ice burg. The retards at the "attractions" counter are about as smart as Teri Shivo (post breathing tube). The food is awful, the bathrooms smell like dead animals, no hot water, no soap, no paper towels... All of which are essential to wash the filth off that accumulates on every inch of his shot hole. They get one star because my kids had fun in the ball pit thingy. Now we are on our way home to bathe in bleach. Fuck you fun city. #burnthisfuckerdownpooky”
See what I mean about some reviewers making it more about themselves than the business/product they’re reviewing. “retards“ This guy thinks he’s HILARIOUS! I bet you everyone in the office cringes when he walks in the room. “mental midgets!” He put some effort into his lame attempt at being funny…
Oh, and a Terry Schiavo joke? In 2013? So edgy!
Keep punching down, Diceman!
And if your big punchline has to come at the expense of a woman with severe brain damage, that had been on life support for years, and died nearly a decade earlier, have the fucking class to LEARN how to spell her name, you horrible excuse for a human being!
I need something good and wholesome to wash that dipshit’s review off my brain…
What’s on the Fun City YouTubes?
Watching this video makes me kind of sad. Which is difficult to do because it’s a video set to the Chicken Dance song. But you see a few areas of Fun City, and it looks like it could indeed be fun. The employees appear to be having fun. And that’s a contrast to all the negativity in the reviews. Of course it can’t be all bad all the time. Low level employees have a tendency to bond over their oppressors. You make the best of it because you’re all in the same boat. You use it as a place to build both friendships and pocket change. You don’t take it too seriously, because how can you?
“THIS PLACE IS A DUMP!!!! It's filthy dirty, outdated, everything is broken, it smells like sewer - it's seriously gross.”
Even if it’s seriously gross.
The best shot I was able to take of the bowling balls beneath Fun City’s sign. This was a very cold February morning, and I was walking around the top of a windy hill. But at least the sign wasn’t obscured by leaves on the trees. The naked branches add to the image.
But something has always bothered me about the bowling balls… Look closer at the holes…
ENHANCE!!!
If you tried to bowl with the holes placed like this on a real ball, you’d break several very painful fingers. The thumb hole cannot be parallel to the ring finger, the violent motion of releasing the ball from a grip inside the balls, underhand, at a decent rate of speed, would tear some serious ligaments quick.
“The was a skee ball we tried to play and it didn't even have any balls. Tekken looked like the video was going out. The pizza was just awful. We checked in on here to get the free game of bowling which was nice. If you have Vienna sausage fingers like I do you will not get your fingers in the holes so bowling sucked. The best part was the pool tables but even those have seen better days.”
Heheheheheh… Vienna sausage fingers…
Some nice blue painted steel beams have been added to the growing collections. Amazing to see how they’ve been easily snapped apart. Previously used to hold the roof over the “Old Town” neighborhood of Fun City. Actually that would be Abandoned Old Town, Fun City, Colorado.
“Absolutely abysmal visit, we will NEVER go again.”
Yeah… Because you CAN’T!
Directly across from the main entrance, the collapsed roof draped in front of the exposed interior. Though not much was left of the building under it, before the front walls of Fun City. From what I could tell of the building, the Mini-Golf course would have under the fallen roof. Whole lotta fun buried under all that…
“Now I remember why I can only come down to this place at tax time; it's expensive!”
Mini Golf at Fun City, as seen on Yelp! Dated February 24, 2015. Windows are a dead giveaway that Mini Golf course was in the northeast corner of middle Fun City building. About a month and a half before this picture was taken, someone had a very dramatic outing in Fun City…
“We had a horrendous experience at "Fun City" on Saturday, January 3, 2015. The employees look depressed, the "attractions" are out-of-order and lack even basic maintenance. We were charged over $80 for a two hour pass for our group of five. Total rip off. The foam factory used to be a fun area, but is now completely run down and neglected. Most of the laser tag vests are out of order, with only 4 actually operating, limiting the group size of participants. The go karts had only 2 karts running, while 6 others sat awaiting repair. The mini golf used to be a fun course, but is now so neglected, we rushed through to get it over with.
** The water feature running through the mini golf course is full of bacteria and the smell coming from the water is nauseating. I wouldn't be surprised if the water is a source of Legionnaire's Disease.**
After our visit to "Fun City", all five of us became ill with severe headaches, chills, fever and vomiting. Sickening. Literally, sickening. btw, I have sent emails to the "management" expecting a full refund of our $80+ for this visit. Local news channels may be interested in getting involved in the tragic story of what "Fun City" has become.”
Well, I looked it up, no local news channels had any interest in your story.
In April 2014, Fun City’s blog was advertising the upcoming Easter promotion. Can’t begin to imagine the nightmare of an afternoon this promotion would be. Given the Yelp! and Googles reviews around April 2014, it would be hot, none of the attractions would be operating anywhere near full capacity. Oh, and the place would be understaffed… And those who were there were snotty and miserable… And the food sucked… And it was expensive… That should about cover it.
“Half of the stuff was broken and didn't work. The bowling lane was not in sync with the score system. All of the hand sanitizer stations were empty. The food was over priced and they actually charged me $1.00 for my kids soda refills. Who charges for soda refills!?!? The ticket redemption station was horrible and the attendant wouldn't give my kids a 4 ticket grace for a tiny candy that was already 150 tickets. All in all, NOT worth the money it cost.”
You do realize you are expecting the employee to bend the rules, albeit ever so slightly, because you think they should. Before I go any further, I agree with you. The kid should have just given up the candy or whatever it was. Four tickets could be found easily, to make up the weight difference for accounting, later in the day. Where I disagree with you is your anger that the attendant didn’t just do what you wanted. Judging from the rest of your review, I’m assuming you were already rather unpleasant to deal with. Many human beings are a lot less likely to bend to your whims when you come off as disrespectful and entitled.
Which I kinda bet you did…
“There is a reason they are closing!! NOTHING WORKS!!! Not enough staff. The management is clueless, classless, rude, and only there for the quick buck.”
Highly doubt anyone who worked in this building was living very high off it…
The southwest corner of Fun City’s parking lot had already been removed, so the new cell phone towers could be built. When I got home that morning, I did some more of my patented half-assed research. I read that Fun City’s demolition was delayed, due to cell phone towers still active on the roof. The building was still bringing in a decent chunk of monthly income, even after Fun City closed for good, from them. Before the building could be demolished, the towers had to be moved.
Of course there were issues with where/how to do it. Neighbors didn’t want tall cell phone towers interrupting their view of the mountains. The agreed upon solution was to move the towers to the southwest corner of the property, which was the highest available point on the hill. The new towers cannot be higher than 75 feet tall and will be disguised as pine trees…
They looked pretty obvious.
Once the additional Pine tress planted around the towers mature, they will likely blend in a lot better.
The center building was mostly reduced to a pile of multi-colored debris. Bits and pieces of the Ball Pit, Old Town and the mini golf course mixed in. Looks like some pieces of the barely functional HVAC system are sitting on top of the heap.
“Above all though was the heat. I can't believe they expect people to go and enjoy themselves when you are in 80-85 degree environment. It was actually hotter than outside. It was ridiculous. I asked 2 different employees and was told by one that the owners were planning a big remodel. THe other just said the ac was the original from the building construction and didn't work. After reading other reviews it looks like they have been stating they plan to remodel for well over a year now. I truly doubt any such remodeling will ever happen.”
Yeah, when you’re running a large family entertainment center, there’s no excuse for this.
A better angle of the center building.
Broken concrete pushed to the left side, metal for recycling on the right.
“The owner really has no pride in that place.”
Seeing as the owner was a faceless investment firm, one would have to assume the end game was always about redeveloping the land. They didn’t want a 144,000 square foot family entertainment center. They wanted the land underneath it. Despite the corporate lines about an upcoming massive remodel, and lip service about fixing some of the many things wrong with Fun City, it was always about devaluing the asset and getting rid of it.
Yelp! Reviewer photo from May 18, 2015. Less than 2 weeks before Fun City closed for good.
“I really wish you could give it zero stars! Horrible!! We figured we'd go there and kill a few hours. After paying $10 per child to use the foam factory and the inflatable area, it turns out, EVERYTHING is broken! So basically you paid $10 to get inside a huge net area and watch all the kids throw balls at each other, which gets really dangerous when you have little ones and it's supposed to be for little kids. To bad there are so many ignorant adults in there throwing ball too. Anyway, not to get sidetracked about the downfall of society, but this place needs to go! Or at least spend some of the money you are stealing from people and fix it! It might help if you hired a staff over the age of 18 too, experience has a lot to do with a business being successful or not. I didn't even start into how dirty it was too! I don't feel like spending the entire day writing about this crappy company, but that's a good start. If you choose to go here, I would be happen to take your money for you, push you around in some dirt and tell you how much fun you had too! Good luck and waste of money!”
I get your point, but your editor needs to demand a second draft in the future.
Seems like you’re workshopping some new material, so let me give you some helpful pointers… Your zinger about not getting “sidetracked about the downfall of society” doesn’t work when the set-up is simply little kids throwing foam balls at each other. Is that what constitutes an atrocity worthy of a line that grand? Or do you not want to be sidetracked because the real crime is the young staff and dirty filth of Fun City. Either way, you’ve got some quality bits going, but they need to be refined.
You also need to slow down, you were clearly overanxious to finish with a bang. Unfortunately, you got ahead of yourself and stumbled over the words. “I would be happen” Ooof… How do you not catch this? Or, if this is you testing out some sort of Jamaican character to spice up your reviews? Let me stop you there. Just DON’T! You also wrote “for you”, instead of “FROM you”. Completely botching the target of the joke.
Oh, and you end FAR too many of your sentences with the word “too”. Come to think of it, there’s really no good reason to ever end a sentence with the word “too.” Unless you’re using it in this fashion…
Settle down and breathe, so you don’t blow the punchline. Don’t try to land a joke if the payoff doesn’t match the setup. Rookie mistake, snark takes practice. I suggest you visit a few Starbucks coffee shops, review them, and sand down the rough edges, before you bite off a subject of this scale.
Your act needs some serious help…
Zero stars for you.
Because Four Baggers doesn’t require a one star premium, just for being there.
“This place has been sold numerous times but has never been updated. Very dated, filthy dirty. I was very disappointed.”
Turning around to look southwest, past Kipling Parkway, past the electrical mess interfering with the view of the mountains. No wonder Littleton residents were so concerned about the cell phone towers messing up the mountain view…
Before the Cell Phone Trees went up, this was a parking lot. The towers are in an area boxed in by a short wooden fence. A gravel path leads from Old Coal Mine Ave, to the fenced area. Once all of Fun City was gone, this access path was paved and made permanent.
“Fun City is a disappointing, freezing, rip off.“
Someone wrote their review in January…
July 2013’s Fun City blog special promotion was $2.00 Tuesdays. That means, for the low price of $2.00, you can walk around Fun City and be disappointed that none of what you wanted to do is available! Though I didn’t see a whole lot of complaints about the Inflatables, other than being filthy. The Rock Wall also didn’t receive a whole lot of complaints, but it’s a climbing wall… Not a whole lot there to malfunction. The Laser Maze was one of Fun City’s top rated attractions, with the most common gripe being the maze itself is too short. Looks cool, but in under a minute, you’re done.
Oh wait, I did miss a grievance aimed at the Rock Wall…
“The clueless brat running the Rockwall station would yell out everyone's weight for the world to hear. No discretion whatsoever. I climbed the expert side, which was quite fun actually but then was not allowed to go again where as everybody else was given 2-3 tries because "I had already climbed the hardest side". Maybe I wanted to try again!”
Well, I find the yelling out of everyone’s weight, pretty funny in my morbid sense of humor. Knowing full well that I would never be in that position of minor humiliation in the first place. I could picture myself standing around for a bit, enjoying that show. As far as you whining about wanting to get another turn after you successfully completed your climb needs some context. How many people were behind you in line? Are there any rules posted saying that if you climb it in your first try, do you win some sort of bonus time? Do you feel entitled to more climbing time because you’re better at it than the ones who failed a few times? Maybe you have a legitimate complaint, but it comes off as rather entitled.
“This place is poorly maintained. The kids' play area is just abysmal, with broken, filthy toys that have probably been there for over a decade. My daughter had a fun time--though at age two, her expectations are low. Easily a third of the arcade games were out of order. I really hope my family doesn't catch some stomach bug or worse from that place. Gross!!”
I think the line: “at age two, her expectations are low” is the perfect review. If you’re 2 years old, Fun City is great! You’re not expecting anything, bright colors and simple movement are usually enough. Of course if you’d like something more advanced, say combining the bright colors and simple movement, Fun City is probably less fun.
Closer look at the gravel road built to access both the Fun City demolition and the cell phone trees. The back of the bowling alley (?) sits about 25 feet from the new fence.
“I think the place has potential just the wrong people running it.”
Fun City’s own bowling photo, used in their own Yelp! review, posted February 2013. Not sure why they made the bowling ball transparent. Why go through the effort of doing that, and skip re-touching all the other alley imperfections?
“Worst service. Worst bowling. Worst management. Most disrespectful place I have been.”
There’s that temporary gravel road, and some graffiti on the door and covered window. The dumpster house has been left open. And that’s one of the cleanest dumpster houses I’ve seen. Especially on a property that dated back 30 plus years. I couldn’t decide which one I wanted to use, because they both had pieces I was interested in. So I decided to go with both. I’d already cut out a few images from my walk down the Kipling side of Fun City, so I double up here.
Speaking of doubling up on images…
Fun City used a variation of the transparent bowling ball picture to promote their bowling leagues, in their July 2013 blog post.
How do we feel about the Fun City Bowling lanes, Yelp!?
“I would not recommend this place for bowling unless you are desperate to get out of the house. I swear the bowling shoes, house balls etc are from the original Fun Plex. The shoes are torn, ripped and extremely worn and the house balls are pitted and also very worn. It is also very expensive compared to just going to a local AMF (bowling alley) which is sure to have more modern equipment. The floor at the lane was wet and sticky where the occupants before us had spilled soda pop. When we told the staff about it, they did not care or bother to clean it up. This might be ok for a family who never bowls and just wants to mess around but for anyone else it is a complete disaster.”
So I guess the Fun City bowling is as poorly maintained as the rest of the building. That might be ok for someone who never bowls, but it actuality, it is a complete disaster…
The south facing side of the bowling alley (?) was still intact. Would have loved to know the layout of the building beyond my educated guesses. Variety of cool looking doors as you walk across the property. Some painted metal, some papered over glass. They’re not supposed to be doing that, I need to be able to see indie. Don’t they understand the disservice they’re creating?
“The customer service was horrible. I work in customer service myself, and it wasn't supposed to be like that, especially for a place where people are supposed to have fun.”
Love how politely incredulous this review is.
And if you work in customer service and have not become completely jaded, hats off to you.
Please tell us how you do it.
Someone has left a non-returnable deposit of at least 50 used tires. Now this took some effort. Not just some arrogant simple-minded litterbug finding a handy place to dump off a couple of tires that were sitting in the garage. This is more than would fit in the back of a pickup truck. Not sure how you dump this much without getting caught. Unless it was an inside dump job by the Contractor of Choice…
In June 2013, the Fun City blog announced a Wednesday bowling special, with valid student ID. It doesn’t specify whether that mean a high school ID, or if the community college ID’s counted as well. I do remember using my ID from Overpriced Art School, for discounts at the Highlands Ranch AMC Theaters, for several years after I graduated. Saving myself literally DOLLARS from the once or twice a year, that I went to a movie.
“I have never desired a shower more after leaving a public establishment.”
Must have been pretty bad… But if I went there in late Spring and the interior was in the lower 90’s, it wouldn’t take me long to want a shower as well.
What about tire dumping?
“When I was a kid this place was called Fun-Plex and it was hours of indoor fun and I loved it. You had your choice of Unlimited Golf, Skating, or Bowling (depending on the package) and a choice of one of the other activities (that was my first time playing laser tag btw and I loved it). Fat-City took over, remodeled the building out of the 1980's and bumped up the prices a bit, but it was still fun and affordable. Last Saturday my Son and I went to what is now called "Fun-City" and not much has changed. The Skating is gone but they have indoor go carts instead (We passed on that) and they've added a rock wall. Another thing that they've added was a "laser maze" which is more challenging and fun than it sounds, but does it have to be six dollars? It's just a room and the whole thing doesn't last more than a minute. Apparently there's an attraction only pass and if you get this knock yourself out. If not, don't waste your money. Lastly, to follow up with my opening sentence this place is becoming a little unaffordable for me.”
One of the most helpful reviews on Yelp!
Simple and objective, while providing a nice history of the place. Unlike the review from the disappointed long-timer I referenced earlier, this reviewer didn’t bring up any real negative other than price. Which makes you wonder just how much of these negative reviews are from the really bad problems with Fun City, and how many of them are exaggerated piling on. There’s zero doubt in my mind that ownership flat out refused to invest in the business they bought, and were set on letting it go to hell from day one. It just took five years to finally sink.
Again, I chose to focus on all the negative reviews. Because there was a lot of them. Of course, they’re going to be more interesting than the other side of the coin. My completely unscientific ratio would have been roughly 70% negative against about 30% positive, without a whole lot of middle ground. A great deal of the negative reviews mentioned the place being dirty. There are also a few comments that included seeing the staff cleaning the place up as part of what they were doing.
Chances are Fun City wasn’t as bad as Yelp! and the Googles reviews made it out to be, but the underlying problems couldn’t be denied. They can be looked at through rose-colored glasses, if you’re willing to overlook those problems. Just comes down to how you view things like Fun City.
I really do wish I’d seen it before it was 60% demolished.
“Almost every shooting game was broken. Food was not that great. Place is falling apart.”
You don’t say…
Unfortunately, this was about as close as I could get to seeing Fun City’s main entrance. A curved canopy (on the right side of the picture) was likely used as a standing area to load and unload vans and busses. A people corral made out of white picket fencing leads up to the front doors.
Another of the Yelp! photos, posted on May 18, 2015.
Less than 2 weeks before Fun City was shuttered.
Arcades today don’t interest me all that much, but I would have loved the Fun City Video Arcade of whatever year it opened. 1985 (if that was when it opened) would have had the peak arcade. Dark rooms with bright neon and fluorescent lights, filled wall to wall with brain dead quarter munchers, is what I picture when I think of an arcade. Now it’s all skill cranes and ticket vendors… Give me bright flashing lights of an alien space fight, a tricky maze game, or something that doesn’t even make sense. But it looks and sounds cool, and is fun to play for a few minutes. And if it’s really fun, I’ll spend more quarters on it.
“Spent another 20$ on credits in the Arcade. The games were EXTREMELY outdated, I mean, you wouldn't even see this crap in the 90's. The games took credits after I pressed the green button and still didn't let us play. I managed to round up a couple hundred tickets from the mega stacker which we immediately took to the redemption center. Guess what we got? Two fucking pieces of candy. This is no joke, I paid $20 for two pieces of fucking candy which I could have bought for a buck at target. Ridiculous.”
Yup… The evolution of arcades to higher percentages of ticket vending machines, has really ruined them for me. You always need a ridiculous number of tickets to get anything above a plastic ring or piece of gum. Late 1990’s Dave & Busters was an eye opener, when it came to what Video Arcades were going to be in the new millennium.
Oh good! I’ve been looking all over for where safety starts!
It was hanging on a fence, at the corner of West Coal Mine Avenue and Old Coal Mine Avenue, all along! As soon as I read “No tobacco usage”, I felt the urge to light a cigarette. Guess that means I couldn’t work here…
The April 2014 Fun City blog promotion was Crazy Cosmic Bowling, for one penny cheaper than the Wednesday Student Special, from June 2013. Guessing that meant as the end was approaching, Fun City was pulling out all the stops to bring people through the doors. And students have to pay more than the Cosmos. Or something…
“Bowling was even a bad experience. The only fun thing we got out of it all was laughs due to amazement of how terrible it was.”
Partakers of Western Theme Nights can inspire this…
Looking though overgrown brush, partially covering the sidewalk, at Fun City. Rapidly disappearing thanks to an ownership group that sabotaged their way into getting what they wanted. A chance to wipe the property clean and make bigger money off whatever replaces Fun City
“This is no longer Mr. Biggs. This place has changed names and management so many times. And with every name changed it gets worse and worse. They don't maintain anything. All the arcade games are somehow broken and when you bowl I guarantee your lane will break at least twice. They also lost their liquor license for a while. You would better off going anywhere else.”
It’s absolutely in poor taste the report a news item such as: “They also lost their liquor license for a while.” Without providing any context or follow up. Now I’m sitting here trying to make up scenarios in my head… Were people drunk driving the Go Karts in reverse circles? Was someone caught in the Ball Pit committing unspeakable acts with the vacuum equipment, after too many shots of Jagermeister? Or was it something as boring (and expected) as serving underage customers?
In an atmosphere like this, I could completely see it…
The southeast corner of Fun City’s parking lot.
“Could be a possible 3 stars if the bathrooms weren't equivalent to an outhouse.”
And that is something to aim for!
That’s an odd arrangement for all those bar stools…
In June 2013, Fun City had Manic Monday. In this setting, Manic means a bowling special similar to every other special they ran. More Mediocre than Manic, in my mind… But sure an $8 pizza would be a good thing, wouldn’t it, Yelp!?
“Jesus Christ! We were all in agreement that starving would be a better fate than whatever this so called "pizza" would cause.”
“Pizza worse than starving!” Probably wouldn’t be a successful slogan anywhere…
Even though it absolutely applies to Pizza Hut and Papa John’s.
Wrapping up my Fun City walk around, with another through the trees shot. This was about as good as I was going to get as far as covering what is left of Fun City. Most of it is gone. There wasn’t much left that could be seen from outside the perimeter fence.
Anybody got anything NEW to say?
“Upon walking into this.... establishment... you are slapped in the face with a variety of odors. All of which I dare not try to identify. The predominately teen staff is rude and they clearly hate their jobs. Everything also seemed wayyyy over priced. I wish I could describe how gross this place is. Nothing has been cleaned here in years. I had many fun memories here as a child when it was known as "fun plex". I came here to visit family this summer and was excited to take my 7 year old son here. I now feel that I need a tetanus shot as well as an acid bath, and I didn't even touch anything. YUCK!!!”
Haven’t been a whole lot of complaints about Fun City’s smell… Another patron with fond memories of childhood visits, when it was several names ago. An attempt to rekindle that feeling with their own child, years later, was so horrible they need a tetanus shot and an acid bath? That’s some serious regression as a business!
Time to go…
“I think that place will be out of business by the end of the month.”
Fun City’s demolition was awesome, but it left me wanting more… After reading all of the reviews, I wish I’d have known at the time and checked the place out. Waiting until about 3 days before it closed for good. Can imagine the photographs I could have taken at Fun City’s peak run-downedness.
I’ll finish things up at Fun City with one more in their “Friday Dance” series. This one is exclusively Baby Cat hanging out in the Fun City offices.
Always down for a cute cat video!
Back across the street, retrieving my car from its safe space in The Meadows, I set out for Kipling Parkway, and off to the next destination on my Littleton photo tour. I never came back to the Fun City site, so the only photos I have are what I took on this day. Didn’t even bother to follow up a few weeks later to see what was left at that point.
I had no personal history here so there wasn’t any reason to follow up. This blog hadn’t started yet, so I was just acquiring more photos with no known end game. Took me 8 and a half years to figure out what to do with these pictures. Once I started this project, I found more of a human side to it. This became a bit more than just another abandoned/demolished building, that made me feel kid of sad.
This was a place that made a lot of people happy.
Until a greedy owner came along and made everyone unhappy.
But he made a lot of money.
And he was the only one happy.
Yet he still wanted more.
Goodbye Fun City. Wish I would have known you at a different time.
“Ok, after reading all the poor reviews, I expected the place to look hell. When we got in there, the bowling area was quite nice. After that, the remaining area is a little sketchy, but we were there to entertain our 3 year old for $9.99, I wasn't expecting marble tiles, Cristal champagne, and shoe shiners in the bathroom. My son had a blast in the kids area. No, it doesn't look like Martha Stewart is doing the cleaning, but it's a bunch of snot-nosed kids running around, what do you expect? I really think people these days expect too much on their low budgets. Time to get real and write reviews that don't ruin a decent business because you are overly picky. But, that is just this guy's opinion, and I'm pretty easy to please.”
This guy gets it.
After leaving Fun City, I drove up to the Southwest Plaza Shopping Mall, and made a circle around it, snapping pictures of each side of the mall as I drove around it. The northwest corner of Southwest Plaza’s parking lot had a sports bar, that had closed since the last time I was through here.
This photo is from a Googlesmobile drive by, in November 2022. So I guess nothing has opened up here in the last 8 years. When I took my pictures in 2017, it looked like it had only recently closed. When it was last open, it was known as The Draft. I stopped and walked around the place, snapping pictures with my camera, fresh off its use at Fun City. I wrote a story about The Draft, a few years back. Feel free to read it, I mention Fun City as being where I’d just come from.
Once Fun City was obliterated off the face of the Earth, yet another Urgent Care center was built on the northwestern corner of the property. Because Littleton doesn’t have enough medical facilities in this area. That’s sarcasm, if you’ve seen this part of town…
The rest of the land has remained undeveloped after Fun City fell. It looks like some the old trees along the south and east sides still remain, including a few of the parking lot trees. If you look closely, you can almost see the footprint of the former Family Entertainment Canter, on the vacant property. Surprised that more medical buildings haven’t been placed on the land by now.
Perhaps they should just plop an inflatable water slide right where that orange Googles dot is.
Wouldn’t that be fun?
“This place has closed down. Drove 40 miles to find out that they shut down. Website said it was opened today, so I didn't bother calling. Oh well, lesson learned.”
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