Tri-Cities Chuck E. Cheese at risk of closing for good. Owners ask Inslee for answers
A $4 million investment by a Tri-Cities family just two years ago is now threatened because of statewide businesses closures related to the COVID pandemic.
“We put our life savings into this two years ago,” said John Corbin, the owner of the Chuck E. Cheese franchise in Kennewick. “And now we’re facing the real threat of having it lost from government intervention.”
This week, exactly two years after opening in his new Vista Field locations, Corbin pleaded in a letter to Gov. Jay Inslee to be allowed to reopen.
“My wife and I ran the business practically every day ... 38 years later, and I never expected to not be open by government decree,” Corbin told the Herald.
He and his wife Kathy opened the restaurant and arcade in Richland in 1982, the same year they were married. They had visited a Portland location and decided that Tri-Cities should have a family entertainment center as well.
Several years ago they decided to reinvest in that business instead of retire.
The family spent $4 million to move the business known for its children’s birthday parties, games and mouse mascot from its longtime rented location on Columbia Center Boulevard in the Richland Wye to a newly-built modern facility on land they bought in Kennewick.
The new store opened Oct. 1, 2018, on West Rio Grande Avenue at Vista Field.
Indoor family entertainment and recreational centers are prohibited until Phase 4 under the mandate of the Washington state Department of Health.
It not only includes places like Chuck E. Cheese with arcades, but also miniature golf, indoor go-karts and similar businesses.
Corbin’s letter to Inslee argues:
“As I see businesses all around the Tri-Cities open and successfully operating I wonder to myself: Are our countertops different from the countertops of “essential” businesses? Can their countertops be cleaned and ours can’t? Do masks work in their buildings and not in our building? Is bringing joy to children and happiness to families “nonessential” in the State of Washington?”
Read the full text of Corbin’s letter here.
A health official from the Benton Franklin Health District told the Herald on Thursday evening that they had not had direct communication with Corbin other than receiving a copy of the letter he sent to the governor’s office. The district confirmed that the arcade and game portion of the building must remain closed given that the Tri-Cities has not reached a phase in which it would be allowed.
However, the official added that because Chuck E. Cheese also operates under a restaurant license they can open the restaurant portion under the same guidelines issued for other food and beverage establishments in Benton and Franklin counties.
Those would allow Corbin to serve diners inside at 25 percent of capacity as long as the arcade is blocked off to patrons. The rules also allow Corbin to create outdoor seating up to 50 percent of the indoor capacity.
The Herald was not able to contact Corbin for a response. He told the Herald earlier in the day that that restaurant doesn’t have current plans to participate in Chuck E. Cheese’s new online-only food service Pasqually’s Pizza and Wings, which is only available through certain meal delivery apps.
The Corbins have been longtime Tri-City businesses owners. John Corbin opened Wendy’s franchises in Tri-Cities in 1977. Kathy Corbin is a Tri-Cities native who started working in her family’s business at 12, when her parents bought the now-closed Spudnut Shop in Pasco.
“We are proud to have been in the community,” Kathy Corbin said. “The impact to our financial situation continues onto our employees.”
They said they received a Paycheck Protection Program loan that allowed their approximately 50 employees to keep getting paid for a while.
That money ran out after six to eight weeks and all their employees have been laid off — including a manager who has worked with them for more than 20 years.
Kathy Corbin said that several other managers have worked with them for at least a decade.
“We care. We work hard with their schedules to have family time, and sports and to make time for their schoolwork,” she said.
But now, John Corbin said that the Kennewick family-friendly center probably has about no more than six months before it will have to permanently close.
He maintains they can open safely with little threat of the transmission of COVID between individuals.
He explained that Chuck E. Cheese’s corporate headquarters created a 24-page manual on guidelines to open that includes mask use, partitions and cleaning protocols.
“There’s really nothing that is more unsafe than in any other business,” he said, “Countertops can be cleaned and the games can be cleaned practically after every use. If users washes hands or use hand sanitizer — there is no transmissions.”
John Corbin pointed to other locations in Oregon that have opened their arcades successfully.
“To completely isolate the children is really an extreme measure. How can that be done?” he questioned.
Kathy Corbin added, “And the fact is our customers need life celebrations and happy times to get us through.”
This story was originally published October 1, 2020 at 12:56 PM.