A little more than a year after breathing new life into an Evans landmark long known for go-karts, an arcade and putt-putt golf, the new owners are planning for a summer full of fun. The name of the venue at 1112 40th St. has changed over the past 25 years.
Once known as Leisure Land, the location later became Gateway Fun Center and then took on a few other names now lost to time. It was unoccupied for more than a decade until June 2022, when the Harper family elected to get their hands on it. After countless hours of manual labor and questioning what they were doing, the Harper family opened the venue with its new name in March 2023: The Rush.
Ron Harper, co-owner, said that after driving past the vacant and barren area one too many times before acquiring the property, he’d wonder how hard it could be to renovate a place that already had a go-kart track and putt-putt course. He and his family quickly got an answer. “The putt-putt (course) was a disaster,” said co-owner Cindy Harper.
Tyler Harper, park manager, said the course needed new turf and landscaping, as well as the removal of a cube of roots in the course water feature. But that was just the start. The building that housed the arcade for previous businesses needed to be brought up to code, and turning the facility into an event center required a lot of elbow grease.
Cindy Harper recalled seeing piles of dirt in the building from the installation of sewer and water lines, a reminder of what they were embarking o.
