Plans for Cinergy Entertainment — the Dallas-based company known for its family-friendly entertainment venues that combine silver screen cinemas with sports simulators, video game arcades, laser tag, axe-throwing and other adrenaline-fueling fun — to open a $45 million entertainment center in Corpus Christi have hit a snag.
Last July, the Corpus Christi City Council approved a $4.15 million property tax incentive to lure the company into building one of its multiuse entertainment venues on a 10-acre plot of land at the intersection of Rodd Field Road and South Padre Island Drive near Oso Bay. Company officials — along with city leaders — gathered at the site for an official groundbreaking ceremony in September, with CEO Jeff Benson saying he expected to “have trucks moving by December 1.” But, as KRIS 6 reported earlier this year, the project has been delayed as Cinergy works to redesign parts of it.
Initially, Cinergy announced that the Corpus Christi facility would have six dine-in “luxury movie auditoriums,” four fully-immersive escape rooms, 22 bowling lanes, a live sports bar with a “massive” TV screen above it, more than 100 arcade games, and a “virtual reality universe,” where guests could play VR games and simulators. But now Cinergy is reworking its plans to reduce the number of movie theaters and expand the videogame arcade space.
During September’s ceremony, Benson said the facility would be the company’s 11th overall. But he also teased a host of expansion possibilities that would require even more land to accomplish.
“We are already starting work for plans on an additional 40,000 square feet,” Benson said.
Chief among those plans are a 40,000-square-foot, three-story tall “extreme karting facility” that would feature a place for spectators to watch as guests zip around two indoor tracks on electric go-karts. The company also hopes to build a “more adult” minigolf course similar to PopStroke in San Antonio.
“We’re not done. This is phase 1 of two or three phases,” Benson said. “Before we’re done, we would love to be what I’m almost calling a ‘resort entertainment center,’” he said.