Family Fun Center celebrates 30 years
In 1994, the Highway 45 Bypass was a two-lane road that just had a yield sign at the intersection with Old Humboldt Road. There were no shopping centers, gas stations or car rental places.
The first business that came to the area was the Family Fun Center when Young Kim bought 10 acres of land from one of the cotton farmers that owned land near the intersection.
“People asked me then and now why did we decide to buy land here and put this place here,” Young Kim said. “And I didn’t known about the growth Jackson was about to have or anything like that.
“This just felt like a good place to have bowling alley. A place where everybody drives to, and it wouldn’t just be for Jackson but for the people just north of us too that didn’t want to drive all the way into Jackson to bowl.”
One advantage to being the first business out there is when the City was mapping out the new street that would go to the bowling alley, Kim got to pick out the name of the road.
“They asked me what I wanted to call it, and I said, ‘Bowling Drive,’” Kim said.
Thirty years later on Thursday, Sept. 19, Young Kim, his son, Andrew, and about 100 well-wishers were at the Family Fun Center to cut a ribbon and celebrate 30 years of business.
The “success” that is exclaimed when The Greater Jackson Chamber cuts a ribbon had a different ring to it after 30 years of profitable business and expansion.
“You see what it is today, but it doesn’t come without a lot of work by this man,” Andrew Kim said pointing to his father. “This man never takes an off-day.
“He’s always looking for something to do. Something to improve on. Something to fix. Something to make better for the customer.”
Since the Kim family bought the land, Andrew has grown up from the 10-year-old boy he was when his father, who’d come to the United States from South Korea eight years earlier and learned to speak English, took the chance of opening his own business.
Since then, the bowling alley has expanded to 36 lanes, a miniature golf course, go-kart track, laser tag, virtual reality roller coaster, 3D interactive movie theater and skating.
The theater has eight seats and is one of two theaters of its kind in Tennessee. The other one is in East Tennessee.
Earlier this year, the Center hosted a company day away from the office with 1,400 employees coming 90 minutes to Jackson from Missouri to enjoy the day and the different activities on the premises.
That’s not to mention the busy nights the business enjoys most any night of the week, but particularly on the weekends, as families enjoy some time away from the real world to enjoy some family time playing some kind of games.
“We’ve made mistakes along the way, but we’re always looking to get better as a business and as an attraction,” Andrew Kim said.
Security has been a point of emphasis for the family in recent years with safety concerns at schools and churches becoming more and more prominent nationwide.
The leadership and security teams for the area have top-level security systems that not only film every part of the area at all times but send notifications when something out of the ordinary – such as a person moving faster than normal or a group of people gathered in an unusual place – were to happen.
“And we’ve taken other measures like making a rule that no child comes in here not accompanied by an adult,” Andrew Kim said. “We had some people who didn’t like that initially, but that keeps things safer in here for the most part.”
By the end of his speech to the gathered before they went outside to cut the ribbon, Young Kim was already looking forward to the ribbon cuttings for the 50th and 60th anniversaries for the Center.
“We want to ensure that this is a place families keep coming to for more generations,” Young Kim said. “Hopefully that will happen.”
Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news
