REED CITY — The newest addition to the Reed City business community encourages locals to be active while having fun.
The Fairway is a new virtual playground opening at 836 S. Chestnut St. in Reed, featuring a variety of interactive video games and activities.
On January 27, owner Gary Bailey cut the ribbon at the location to celebrate the grand opening.
The company has two simulator booths where individuals and groups can play a variety of activities including golf, baseball, hockey, soccer, disc golf, bowling and special mini-games including zombie dodgeball.
Manager Nick Bailey said the space will encourage families to exercise.
“It’s going to be a modern arcade that requires you to work out,” Bailey said. “On the other side of the place, we have two sites with virtual reality headsets and three sites with Nintendo Switch, and all the games. We’re going to ask you to move. We’re also going to put out educational stuff like Angry Birds game.”
The arcade will offer virtual reality headset games with a variety of gameplay and challenges. They will carry novelty items and supplies for games like board games and Dungeons and Dragons.
Bailey said they want to provide a lot of options and products that are useful to the community.
“We also have some accessories for baseball in virtual reality to actually measure people’s swings,” Bailey said. “They can practice their swing and it will tell them where they need to work better. Right now, we have two simulators that hold eight people each.”
The simulator is $40 per hour and the virtual reality station is $20 per hour, and up to eight people can use the system. If a group of eight uses the virtual reality system, the fee is $5 per person.
Nintendo Switch games cost $10 an hour for up to four people.
Fairway also offers a selection of products for golfers and has a golf packing station to help repair golf equipment. It will offer regular golf and disc golf tournaments throughout the year.
“There’s a lot of people saying there’s not much to do here,” Bailey said. “It would be great to do something for the kids, families or individuals. We will be open year-round, 7 days a week. We plan to expand as expected and we have had great feedback. Lots of people are interested and we A lot of ways have been booked for different things.”
The Fairway owners plan to expand to a larger facility over the next few years to be able to expand their simulators and offer more events to the community.
For more information on The Fairway and its events, visit www.thefairwayrc.com.
