DAYTON, Ohio — Scene75 is known as a Dayton original. But the Entertainment Center in North Dayton has been working to rebuild after heavy destruction was caused by tornadoes.
“The tornadoes absolutely destroyed the building,” Scene75 Director of Marketing and Creative Maggie McCartney said. “We had HVAC units and signs from across the street on Miller Lane that had crashed through our roof.”
McCartney said the storms broke the water lines, which caused flood damage, and walls were completely missing. But that wasn’t going to deter them from rebuilding their flagship location.
“We’ve always been the kind of team where we, instead of sulking and woe is me, we decided to redo this space and turn a negative into a positive,” McCartney said.
18 months later, Scene75 is nearing a reopen date with lots of improvements and additions.
“We’ve added an additional 40,000 square feet to the building,” she said. “We really focused on adding bigger thrills and bigger rides to the lineup.”
New additions include the second-largest indoor roller coaster in the state, a two-story drop tower, a double-decker carousel, new games and 18 holes of indoor mini golf.
“We’re just so excited about it,” she said.
Reopening their entertainment center in the middle of a pandemic is another challenge facing Scene75 — but it’s one McCartney said they’re prepared for.
“We just take safety so seriously here. It’s one of our core values to put people first,” McCartney said. “And we held true to that.”
She said their “Stay Safe Together Guidelines” are already in place at their other four locations, and can be viewed at scene75.com. But those who plan to visit should expect to wear a mask.
The grand reopening date is not set just yet, as inspections still have to be completed.
“We don’t have an exact date yet,” she said. “We will be posting it on our Facebook page so that people can always be tuned in, so as soon we get the date, we’ll be posting it.”