HeyDay Expansion - $9 mil for bowling and meeting space

[Garin]

HeyDay also has a pretty good pizza buffet, just don't go during high school lunch hours.

[cdoyle]

HeyDay and Andy Alligators are not owned by the same people.

HeyDay is owned by Brad and Keri Little and Trey and Tracey Bates.

[cdoyle]

HeyDay does appeal to more of the older kid, teenager, young adult, and adult audiences. The laser tag arena is multi-level and is 7,000 square feet. You need to be at least six years of age to play (the packs can be a bit much for a small child). There is also indoor ropes course, miniature golf, and an indoor arcade. DoubleDave's Pizza is also located inside of HeyDay and is awesome! Fresh made dough daily - nothing frozen.

[kevinpate]

HeyDay also has a pretty good pizza buffet, just don't go during high school lunch hours.

That applies to most pizza buffets in Norman when high school is in session.
When my lunch breaks were in large part dictated by munching with coworkers, timing around the student population was often a part of the decision process.

[Soonerman]

I take it the High Schools in Norman have open campuses for lunch.

[kevinpate]

I think they still do. My youngest left high school a few years back. These days my typical grab lunch tends to hit prior to 11 or after 2, depending on what I have been doing and when i started at it. As a result I tend to miss crowds of all ages when I eat lunch.

[Garin]

They do but the Southmoore kids hit it also.

[Jeepnokc]

If you have younger kids you definitely know about Andy Alligator's...I'm guessing Hey Day is for older kids because out of 10,000 birthday parties I have had the pleasure of attending none have been there

I'm the opposite but may be because of age. My youngest is 11 and we have been to a bunch of birthday parties at heyday the last three years but I have never been to Andy alligators

[shawnw]

IMAG1435_1.jpg

Dirt moving on this site...

[Plutonic Panda]

Any updates? Pictures?

[venture]

Just some big concrete walls still, nothing very photogenic. :-P

[shawnw]

The expansion is really pretty massive. Kind of dwarfs the original building. Been meaning to take/post pics. Lately I've been wondering if they purposely chose the location/orientation of the extension so that it would block the view of Andy Alligator from the highway right up until you're almost past it...

[warreng88]

Drove down to Norman on Sunday and it looks like they were framing out the entrance in to the new section. Once they get a roof on it and get everything secured, it should move pretty fast, assuming the second floor is already in place. They are just putting in some bowling lanes and party rooms really. Wouldn't be surprised to see it open by the end of the year.

[Easy180]

Ate at Boomerang tonight at 89th & Western and our waiter said they are closing at that location and opening inside Hey Day with a different owner. Said it should all be open in September.

[Plutonic Panda]

Not past their HeyDay: Co-owners of Norman entertainment venue up their game with expansion | The Journal Record

[macfoucin]

I think the expansion looks great! I drove by this morning and they have installed lights around the front of the building that cycles through different colors. They sorta remind me of Riverwind.

[warreng88]

Not past their HeyDay: Co-owners of Norman entertainment venue up their game with expansion | The Journal Record

Not past their HeyDay: Co-owners of Norman entertainment venue up their game with expansion

By: Molly M. Fleming The Journal Record October 21, 20140

NORMAN – HeyDay Entertainment co-owners Brad Little and Trey Bates opened the venue in 2007 with laser tag, miniature golf, arcade games and DoubleDave’s Pizzaworks.

They spent $6 million expanding the facility from 14,000 to 50,000 square feet. The new space has 24 bowling lanes and an entire second floor for guests age 21 years and older, along with other new upgrades.

“We saw there was a need for places for adults to go and have fun,” Little said. “There’s nothing like it in this area. We wanted to create an experience that no one else had.”

The expansion had been in the works for two years, long before new competitor Main Event announced plans to move into the Oklahoma City market.

“We’re really committed to the community,” Little said. “We asked ourselves, ‘What would people be proud of?’”

One element they knew people would want was a bowling alley. When the AMF Moore Lanes announced it wouldn’t reopen following the May 2013 tornado, Little and Bates wanted to give a bowling venue back to the area.

HeyDay is at 3201 Market Pl. in Norman.

The expansion was designed by Oklahoma City-based Cornerstone Architecture’s principal owner, Shane Labeth. He has designed bowling facilities around the country and was glad to do one in his backyard.

LaBeth said the challenge with the project was to make it appeal to children and adults. That was accomplished using stone columns and warm-colored furniture and accents. Bates and Little gave their wives, Tracey Bates and Keri Little, credit for picking out the decor.

“They have been a huge part of this,” Bates said.

The facility was built by Miller-Tippens Construction. The project broke ground in December 2013 and will open Monday. HeyDay closed in August while the final touches were added. Miller-Tippens Senior Project Manager Tony Scorsone said the company often turns projects around in a short time period.

He said the company has worked with other projects that needed to stay open as long as possible during construction.

“It’s always a challenge, but it worked out pretty well,” Scorsone said. “We were segregated pretty well. It didn’t affect them too bad until we had to knock a hole into the existing wall that went into the new place. Once we did that, a whole new set of challenges came in with keeping it safe and secure.”

The closure allowed for the new addition to be completed with the highest quality. Everything at HeyDay was made bigger and better, with the game room now having 50 arcade games underneath a ropes course. Next to the game room is the 7,000-square-foot renovated laser tag arena and a laser maze, which Little said is Oklahoma City’s first maze. The laser maze features laser lights shot across the room in a crisscross pattern. Players must maneuver through the lights without hitting them.

Between the game room and the bowling area is a renovated seating area. The room has a large television screen for sports and four smaller screens that show what’s happening in HeyDay’s other areas. He said the smaller screens will let parents watch their children while using the venue’s Wi-Fi, as well as give patrons ideas for what to do next.

There is plenty to do next, with an updated 18-hole miniature golf course in the back and 16 bowling lanes on the first floor. The bowling area features two large screens showing sports or music videos. The alley is outfitted with television screens and audio. The system was designed by Oklahoma City’s Ford Audio-Video Systems Inc.

The second floor is where Little and Bates took the venue into a whole new market, creating Revolutions, the 21-and-up area. Bates said he and Little are committed to being a family entertainment center, which is why the second floor, built with an age exclusion, was important. The area has furniture and tabletops for seating. There’s also a pool table on the floor.

“If you have a parents’ night out, the last thing you want to do is take care of someone else’s kids,” Little said.

The second floor has a full bar with several craft beers on tap, and even a bottled HeyDay beer made by the Great Divide Brewing Co. in Denver. It also has eight cherry-wood bowling lanes and a climate-controlled patio.

Guests can access the bar menu and DoubleDave’s Pizzaworks on the patio or anywhere else in the venue. They can also enjoy the newly added Boomerang Grille.

The restaurant became part of HeyDay when Bates and Little were thinking about how they could expand the food options. They thought about Boomerang’s theta burger and how they’d like to offer something like that. Bates said it then hit them – why not offer the real deal? They called Mike Lawrence, who operated the only true original Boomerang in south Oklahoma City. Lawrence closed up that shop and is now working with Bates and Little, serving Boomerang’s iconic menu.

“It’s just exciting,” Bates said. “Mike’s an important part of our team.”

The HeyDay staff has expanded to fill the new spaces, growing from 47 employees to 110. Bates and Little are still learning their names, but they’re glad to have so many young people in whom they can instill the values of hard work.

The staff will deliver the first-class experiences that guests can expect with the new expansion.

“We’ve poured everything we have into this,” Bates said. “I can’t wait to have the doors open and have people come in.”

[Plutonic Panda]

HeyDay Reopens following a $6.5 Million Expansion

News | The Moore Daily

[Plutonic Panda]

Norman's HeyDay entertainment center renovation adds more fun | News OK

[Dustin]

[traxx]

The poor guy at :20 is gonna be mortified with how he looks when he sees this. He keeps kicking his leg up every time he throws.

[Pioneer]

Here's a little video of some friends and I and the new bowling alley @ HeyDay... The place looks awesome.. Very well done.. I'd say it's Norman's Warren Theatre for Bowling

[ljbab728]

Here's a little video of some friends and I and the new bowling alley @ HeyDay... The place looks awesome.. Very well done.. I'd say it's Norman's Warren Theatre for Bowling

Are those video boards above the pins always going? I cant' imagine anything being much more distracting for a serious bowler.

[shawnw]

that's how it is at redpin

[ljbab728]

that's how it is at redpin

That may be fun but, as someone who basically grew up in a bowling alley many years ago, that would not be conducive to good bowling results.