Slackers Family Fun Center is preparing to open a second location in downtown St. Joseph.
The popular arcade-centered business that began at the Orchards Mall, then moved to Vineland Road in 2022 will expand in two or three phases, occupying the entire lower level, plus a 606 Broad Street storefront in the historic Troost Furniture building downtown.
Slackers second-generation owner, Jonathan ‘JJ’ Burch took MoodyOnTheMarket.com on a ‘walk thru’ of the new Slackers Too location, enthusiastically describing his plans to transform the old furniture store basement into a high-tech playground for a wide age-range of customers.
Burch has about 6,000 square feet to work with, less than half the space available at his Vineland Road main location, which he emphasizes will stay open and continue to grow. For example, Laser Tag is a big draw at the Main Vineland location but will not be available downtown. With the lower level divided into approximately ‘thirds’ by cinderblock walls, Burch envisions a multi-focus: electronic arcade space, a mini-golf layout and several ‘Escape Rooms’.
“When you first walk down the stairs or take the elevator to come down, you step into this room here… You’ll see the arcade and you’ll see the start of the mini golf. Mini golf will wrap around into the third room here and end somewhere in there. And then you’ll have the three escape rooms that we’ll be offering.”
Note that the facility has a full-size modern passenger elevator, going back to its furniture store days. So, Slackers Too will be fully accessible.
On the storefront street level at 606 Broad Street, Burch plans a ‘hobby & gaming store,’ which is the focus of his fiancé and Slackers Too General Manager Billie Marie Carter. She told us what to expect on the ground floor:
“So, the upstairs is going to be a gaming store or a hobby store. It’ll be things like Magic the Gathering, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, which are all like collectible card games. We’re going to have board games, we’re going to do stuff for Dungeons and Dragons. So think hobby store… where they can come in, they buy the cards, they buy the packs. And we will also have used board games that people can buy at a discount.”
Burch has been in the arcade business for 19 years, beginning when his late father, Rod Burch, opened Slackers at The Orchards Mall. Jonathan took over after his father’s passing in 2016. He says it’s all gotten more complicated, more ‘high tech.’
“Everything has become a lot more technical. A lot more computer boards, a lot more computers in the games. Take for example our old basketball machine, sitting right here. It’s literally one tiny board and then the thing that spits out the tickets. That’s all you have. Nowadays they have computers sitting in them that run the lights, the mechanisms.”
Burch expects to open the Slackers Too hobby & gaming store on the street level in August, featuring a few arcade games as a preview of what’s ahead. The big lower level will open next Spring or Summer of 2026, as improvements and updates are completed.
The red-brick building with white balconies and trim at State and Broad Street is owned by St. Joseph real estate developer Joe Giannola, who owns several historic downtown buildings, as well as the Vineland building where Slackers Family Fun and Laser Tag is located. Burch has special praise for Giannola as a landlord who understands the vision of his tenants and helps them achieve their dreams. Burch says the Slackers Too concept has been developing in his imagination for years and sees it as fantastic opportunity for him as well as for downtown St. Joseph.
arcade games at Slackers main location on Vineland Road, St. Joseph
