Sheldon Phillips, who will serve as the general manager for Extreme Rush, rides a go-kart during Pocatello’s Fourth of July parade. The 60,000-square-foot facility will feature an indoor go-kart track among many other attractions.
Friends and family members of those behind Extreme Rush, a new family fun center coming to the Gate City area in the next few months, shoot orbeez out of gel blasters during the Pocatello Fourth of July parade. A gel blaster arena will be one of several main attractions at the new facility. Side By Side Buggy
Sheldon Phillips, who will serve as the general manager for Extreme Rush, rides a go-kart during Pocatello’s Fourth of July parade. The 60,000-square-foot facility will feature an indoor go-kart track among many other attractions.
CHUBBUCK — A thrill-seeking Sloth named Rush will soon be looking for his newest adventure buddy.
Rush is the mascot for Extreme Rush, a massive family fun center coming soon to the Gate City area, complete with arcades, escape rooms, high-tech mini golf, gel blasters and, among other activities, indoor go-karts.
“We are super excited about bringing a family fun center to the Gate City area,” said Sidney Davis, co-owner of the new facility. “This project has been an idea more than two years in the making so seeing this all come together has been a dream come true.”
The greater Pocatello community got a sneak preview of what Extreme Rush plans to offer during the recent Fourth of July parade in Historic Downtown Pocatello. Sheldon Phillips, who will serve as the general manager for Extreme Rush, was spinning around in a go-kart as kids and adults peppered those in the crowd with neon green orbeez fired from the unique gel blaster pistols.
Set to break ground in the coming weeks, Extreme Rush will be located near Chubbuck City Hall, sandwiched between Bonanza and East Linden avenues. The address will be 211 E. Linden Ave.
The massive 60,000-square-foot facility will feature a little bit of something for everyone and hopes to bring out the kid in everyone who comes in for some fun, Phillips said.
“Extreme Rush will feature electric indoor go-karts, an arcade with classic machines and newer virtual reality games and something called Lucky Putt, which is a high-tech mini golf course that incorporates a mini-game into the golf course,” Phillips said. “Players can scan their putter and it will keep track of their score.”
Phillips continued, “The facility will also feature a kid’s play place with this huge climbing structure and a few things on the side like an augmented sandbox, which is basically a 3D interactive sandbox that uses a projector. Kids can dig deep into the sandbox and it will turn into water or build high and turn the sand into mountains.”
Friends and family members of those behind Extreme Rush, a new family fun center coming to the Gate City area in the next few months, shoot orbeez out of gel blasters during the Pocatello Fourth of July parade. A gel blaster arena will be one of several main attractions at the new facility.
The gel blaster arena takes the best of laser tag and paintball and combines it into one activity, Phillips said.
“It’s more tactical than laser tag but not messy or painful like paintball,” Phillips added.
Extreme Rush aims to be a one-stop-shop for family fun, pairing a multitude of exciting activities with an indoor restaurant and large rooms for families to rent to host birthday parties or large gatherings.
Bringing a family fun center has been a process that Davis and his business partner, Jason Hebdon, have been working on for at least the past two years. Hebdon and Davis are the co-founders and co-owners of Extreme Rush.
“Jason and I are basically kids at heart,” Davis said. “We love to play board games and would always be looking for date night ideas with our wives. We love doing the escape rooms, but after a while it became a little stale and we were left thinking that there just wasn’t enough stuff to do in Pocatello.”
He continued, “The Pocatello area is one of those places where everyone goes to other places to do things. They leave for Idaho Falls, Boise and Salt Lake City to find things to do and that’s what really got us thinking that we should just start something ourselves that the community can enjoy.”
What started off with the idea of building a place for new escape rooms quickly grew to include go-karts and other fun activities, Davis said.
So they created a limited liability company and started doing research.
“We talked to a couple people in the industry and eventually got invited to this entertainment expo in Orlando,” Davis said. “We flew down there and got to this huge facility with over 30,000 vendors involved in the entertainment industry. We rubbed some shoulders, made some contacts and came back thinking, ‘This is something that we can actually do.’”
Over the course of the last two years, those involved with the Extreme Rush project were able to raise about $725,000 from private investors, some of whom include family and friends of Davis, Hebdon and Phillips.
The goal is to have Extreme Rush open by December, said Davis, adding that the opening date could extend into the first quarter of next year depending on any sort of construction delays.
“We know the compound annual growth rate for family fun centers is expected to double for family fun centers over the next eight years,” Davis said. “So we’re trying to get in before this storm takes hold and goes crazy. We also know that we will have some competition from existing businesses in the area, but that’s why we wanted to be extreme and put a different twist on it.”
Those interested in learning more about Extreme Rush are encouraged to check out the website, extremerushidaho.com or follow them on Facebook by visiting tinyurl.com/4avvt2sr.
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