City Board OKs Rotunda Arcade

An arcade will be opening in the .

The Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals approved an occupancy permit for the arcade on Tuesday at City Hall.

"We’re going to get the arcade up and running, hopefully within the next month, we’re going to have 25 machines, its going to be a family oriented arcade," said Ira Miller, who will run the arcade and also owns the Rotunda Cinemas.

Miller announced his plans to pursue building an arcade featuring old school games such as pinball, skee ball and whack-a-mole in the mall in early June.

He has delayed hearings on the permit with the appeals board twice to meet with communities to address concerns about the project.

Miller met with the Roland Park Civic League in July, and that neighborhood group about the impact of the arcade on the Rotunda, which has struggled and in the midst of a long delayed redesign.

But on Tuesday there were no objections raised regarding the approval for allowing the occupancy permit. George Peters represented the Hampden Community Council at the hearing, and he told the board the neighborhood association had voted unanimously to support the arcade.

Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke, who represents the area, said after the hearing she was happy to know that another business was being opened in the Rotunda.

"I think it has been worked out well, and I think it was wise to make it an accessory use to the movies that Mr. Miller operates, [which] are four screens at the moment," Clarke said. "So there’s a connection there so that it lives in the shadow of the movies, and is basically part of that whole operation, so that makes me very happy."

Miller said he hopes the community will support the arcade, like the recently expanded Rotunda Cinemas and the connected coffee shop that opened last month.  

"I'm going to give it a go, and I think it will be very successfull, and I think that everybody who lives around the Rotunda area will be very, very happy," Miller said.

Follow North Baltimore Patch on Facebook and Twitter.