Elev8 Fun Doing Just That in Florida

PrimeTime’s David Goldfarb Brings New Brand of Fun to Sunshine State

by Matt Harding

David Goldfarb, owner of the new Elev8 Fun entertainment center in Sanford, Florida, started PrimeTime Amusements when he was in college at 19 years old. Today, the company has offices in Orlando and Fort Lauderdale.

“The business grew from operations into sales where we distribute and consult with entertainment centers all over the world,” Goldfarb explained. He’s been leading PrimeTime Amusements for nearly 30 years.

In 2015, he opened up an FEC of his own with real estate developer Michael Dezer – Xtreme Action Park in Fort Lauderdale. In 2019, the massive 200,000-sq.-ft. venue won AAMA’s FEC of the Year Award.

“After developing that, we felt like in order to get the next level, we would start putting our concept in department stores,” he said.

So that’s what they did with Elev8 Fun, the first of which opened Dec. 30, 2021, in Sanford, an Orlando suburb. The multi-level venue is located at the Seminole Towne Center mall.

It features indoor go-karting, 12 lanes of bowling, a whopping 180-game arcade (including a small retro arcade), interactive mini-golf, laser tag, a ropes course, climbing walls, conference rooms for parties and corporate events as well as full food and beverage. All of that is contained in a 125,000-sq.-ft. space.

In that, there’s about 18,000 sq. ft. dedicated to the arcade, which is about 70% redemption and 30% video games – both new and classics. The game room drives about 40% of the facility’s revenue, Goldfarb reported. Intercard is the cashless provider in the arcade.

“We have so many different games and a lot of room to play with,” he said. “It really is something that the whole family can use. Not everyone wants to do go-karts. We have a very broad demographic. Families has been a very big mix for us, as well as couples.”

Birthday parties and corporate events started a couple of months after opening, in February, and business has been booming so far.

Goldfarb said the company originally got the building for Elev8 back in September 2019, and that construction during Covid was a nightmare, but they were glad to finally open at the end of 2021. At the moment, they’re working on the second and third locations.

The second store is located in Tampa at the Citrus Park Town Center in a former Sears department store. The third is also under construction at Treasure Coast Mall in Jensen Beach, part of metro Port St. Lucie. Both are scheduled to open by the end of 2022.

All of the locations are roughly the same size and will all “mimic the same attractions.”

With Florida roots and Sunshine State-based investors, that’s where Elev8 Fun plans to start. In addition to the three already open or set to open this year, two more Florida locations have been identified and the company has plans to close on those properties by the end of the year.

“We’ll slowly move forward and look to do this on a global scale,” Goldfarb said. “There are many department stores becoming available. We thought this could be a unique opportunity to convert these stores into entertainment centers.”

Learn more at www.elev8fun.com.