Old Town Owner Comes Up With New Family Entertainment Concept

CASPER, Wyo. — Casper’s Old Town Family Fun Center will close permanently after January of next year, but the current owner says it won’t be a final goodbye for it or its beloved facility.

Juliann Harvey owns and operates the Old Town Mini Golf and Entertainment Center located along the Platte River behind the Best Western Downtown Casper hotel complex, formerly known as Parkway Plaza.

The resort was closed for some time due to the hotel underwent changes in ownership and operator. Juliann reopened Old Town in 2021 after moving with her husband and three children from Colorado’s Front Range.

Before moving here, Juliann’s family already knew the facility and liked it. “My husband was working for the first time. [in Casper] Before we moved here, we stayed in the hotel and my children played here,” he said. That was around 2015. A few years later, the family ended up settling here permanently, but by then the mini-golf course had already closed.

“It was kind of a fluke when we found out they were going to rent it,” he said. Looking to book a family event, Juliann called the hotel and was told Old Town was closed, but available to rent as a business.

“I had been researching family entertainment for years, and when they told me they were renting it, it all developed from there.”

Juliann is an architect by profession, with experience in marketing and entrepreneurship. After moving to Casper, she began selling t-shirts for local sports clubs and schools, and was eager to get into the family entertainment business.

The Old Town facility had been idle for at least two years when Juliann took over. The golf course, with its idealized representation of early Casper, was faded and overgrown, and the building needed major plumbing work. The two font systems in the field were also problematic: one was resolved relatively quickly, but the other took a little longer. “We had been working on it for three years trying to get it to work,” he said. “We finally figured out how to do it and then we discovered the leaks.”

“We repainted and reinforced the upper patio a lot, because it had rotted a lot there.”

All the hard work has paid off. They have been profitable and many former Casper residents who played there as children now bring their children.

“It’s been incredible,” he said. “I hear all those stories and they are great.”

“Now what we’ve discovered is that we want to go further, and this location just won’t work for us,” Juliann said. “It’s not about the success or failure of this space, it’s just that what we want to do requires a different space.”

What she envisions is a large family entertainment facility that can offer many more attractions that include arcade games and mini golf, but also go beyond that. Their hope is to build a facility with multiple interior options, without having to rely on Casper’s often unforgiving climate.

“It’s windy outside, it’s snowing or it’s raining,” he said. “The golf course is open all year round, but the times you want to play and there is nothing better to do [because of the weather]You can’t play.”

“We want to do something where we can have a fun, cool, safe environment and have a lot to do so you don’t have to remember that it’s windy outside,” he said.

For now, he’s keeping his concepts a secret, but he’s looking for ideal locations and construction options.

Juliann says that while she and her future business will be moving out of Old Town, it doesn’t mean the end of the old facility Casper residents love so much.

“I know that someone interested is already arriving,” he said. “We resurrected it from doing nothing to where it is now, and they have the opportunity to do something different.”

His Old Town career ends after January. The last day open to the public will be a big farewell party on January 5. After that, there are events booked in the space throughout the month and there are still vacancies for building rentals until then.

After that, it will focus on developing a new concept and business model, and hopes to reopen with a new brand and theme in the next year or two.

Juliann says she believes family entertainment options are essential to Casper, both as a community and as a tourist destination.

“We know that a lot of people come to this city to attend sporting events, go shopping and all that; “We want them to stay longer,” he said.