CT city makes way for indoor entertainment operations, with a second possibly on way

The indoor entertainment industry was hit hard by the pandemic.

But escape room enthusiasts take note: a Connecticut city will get at least one new location in 2024, and possibly two.

Planning officials in December authorized Jonah Evenson of West Hartford to create an escape room on Middletown’s Main Street in the city center, and a local man is now proposing to establish another one along Route 3 not far from the Cromwell border.

Tad Huey wants to open Puzzle Theory Middletown on the lower level of 909 Newfield St., an office building that currently houses a chiropractic practice. He filed a zoning application on Dec. 19, less than a week after the town approved Evenson’s plan for an escape room and virtual reality center at 425 Main St., about 2.5 miles away.

Evenson has said his new business will be Lara’s Labyrinth, a model that he operates in Wethersfield, East Haven and Hadley, Massachusetts. He anticipates closing the East Haven and Massachusetts locations when Middletown opens.

Huey has not disclosed specifics of his business plan but said it would have three separate rooms with distinct themes.

“Groups of two to 10 people would find clues and solve puzzles within a room in order to complete a mission objective which is based around the theme of the particular room they are playing in,” his application states. “Each room takes about one hour.”

Like most indoor entertainment operations, the escape room business across the country was hit hard by the COVID pandemic but appears to have stabilized in the past year.

An enthusiasts’ website, roomescapeartist.com, reported in late December that about 1,950 escape rooms are operating in the United States, pretty much unchanged from mid-2022. By comparison, the industry shrank by more than 12 percent during the first half of the pandemic.

Evenson said his Wethersfield location has done well during its six years in operation and predicted that the newly approved downtown Middletown operation will, too.

“Middletown is geographically centered, and I think we’ll be getting people coming from the north and south, and the east and west,” he said before the Middletown Planning and Zoning Commission’s vote.

At the Wethersfield Lara’s Labyrinth, players are locked in rooms with themes like The Curse of Osiris and Cell Block 4. They get 60 minutes to use clues to figure out how to escape. Teams of two to seven are possible, and prices range from $99 to $249.

Evenson’s Middletown escape room will be on the third floor of 425 Main St, an office building that once housed a regional Social Security Administration location. He’ll use about 4,500 square feet of space and also plans a virtual reality center there.

He told the commission that Lara’s Labyrinth would have four rooms with four to six players each at most. The business won’t serve food or beverages, he said.

Hours of operation will be weekdays from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., with weekend closing possibly as late as midnight, Evenson said. The commission unanimously approved his plan on Dec. 13 after a public hearing where no residents spoke.

Huey’s proposal requires a special zoning exception because the property is in a retail zone. He will present it at a hearing on Jan. 10, 2024, before the commission.

In his application, Huey said his business would have three rooms with an average of four to six players in each. At most, the operation would have 30 people at one time, he said.