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City Board OKs Rotunda Arcade

The arcade will feature 25 old school arcade games, such as pinball and skee ball, and it set to open within the next month.

 

An arcade will be opening in the Rotunda.

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 raised concerns 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.

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Related Topics: Arcade, Baltimore, Pinball, Rotunda, Rotunda arcade, hampden, and skee ball

ralahinn1

4:06 pm on Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Finally, a good local place for family fun and to keep" at risk" youth out of trouble in the area

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Kelli Pouder

10:08 am on Thursday, September 6, 2012

Yeah HAMPDEN!!! We now have a place to take our kids and it is a FUN place.. Now for the people that don't drive can take there children to a fun family place and it is in walking distance to there homes...I am so happy for the neighborhood....

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magma

10:23 pm on Sunday, September 9, 2012

This is great news! We love pinball and arcades.

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Jim Jermy

9:28 am on Monday, September 10, 2012

Any word on the actual opening date?

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Daniel Ewald

9:44 am on Monday, September 10, 2012

At the moment there's only the pizza joint at Rotunda correct? Hopefully this can spur another eatery to open at the mall too.

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Bobby

8:11 am on Friday, October 12, 2012

When when when will it open??

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