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Alix hopes to draw Albertans to new fun centre

Moonwalker Fun Centre provided countless hours of entertainment to children before the Red Deer play space closed four years ago.

By Harley Richards

Red Deer Advocate

Moonwalker Fun Centre provided countless hours of entertainment to children before the Red Deer play space closed four years ago.

The Village of Alix is hoping those youngsters, and their parents, have long memories.

The municipality is reassembling the sprawling, multi-level play structure that was the heart of Moonwalker’s operations — this time inside a new multi-purpose building in Alix.

It bought the equipment from the previous owners in hopes of creating an attraction that would bring visitors to Alix and help fund local recreational programs.

This vision is expected to become a reality in June, when Moonwalkers will be reborn in a newly constructed building.

“Everything’s coming together,” said CoraLee Brookes, Alix’s recreation coordinator and the person who will manage the play facility.

“We have inventoried every piece and cleaned it and started to refurbish what needed to be refurbished.”

Sharing 3,500 square feet of space with the play structure will be arcade games, a new toddlers’ area and a sitting area for adults. The needs of babies have also been considered.

“We’ll have extra saucers and those kinds of things that the parents can pull up to their tables,” Brookes said.

There will also be rooms for private parties, and birthday packages prepared with help from local businesses like restaurants, she said.

The new facility is already generating excitement among Alix’s younger demographic, Brookes said, but she expects it to draw users from throughout Central Alberta.

That should help acquaint visitors with other amenities the community has to offer, including a lake and beach, a new playground and a “fabulous golf course.”

In addition to the economic spinoffs from out-of-towners coming to Alix, Moonwalkers should also produce money for local programs. That will come from the $10 admission fee, which applies to children over two.

“Fifty per cent of those are going to be put back into the village recreation program,” said Brookes.

Occupying space in the same building as Moonwalkers will be a business incubator, where startup ventures can establish themselves in a low-cost setting.

A café has already laid claim to one of the three bays earmarked for this use, and Brookes expects it to help satisfy the food and refreshment needs of Moonwalkers customers.

The building on Railway Avenue will also serve as the home for Alix’s Family and Community Support Services office, its recreation department, its emergency services centre and the local food bank.

The village will lease the building from a private developer who constructed it as a public-private partnership (P3).