After being shuttered for almost a year due to pandemic restrictions, Mountasia Family Fun Center has been purchased by MB2 Group.
Michael Fleming, former general managing partner at Mountasia, announced that the center was looking for a buyer in September, calling it a “Hail Mary” attempt to keep its doors open.
Though it is still closed now, Chris Brooks, a Saugus resident and co-owner of the MB2 go-kart racing facility in Sylmar, purchased the center in October and already has started upgrading attractions and expanding Mountasia, according to Fleming.
“It was exciting that we found someone that wants to carry on the legacy of Mountasia,” Fleming said. “They’re planning a lot of great things for it, and I’m really happy for the community that Chris is taking it over. I think the community as a whole is, once it reopens, they’re going to be really impressed.”
Once completed, the center is set to feature Topgolf Swing Suites, duck-pin bowling, a sports bar, along with newly renovated current attractions, including the miniature golf course, arcade and go karts.
“We’re thinking right now about putting in a slick track as well,” Brooks said. “Basically, we’re changing everything. … It’s a big undertaking during COVID.”
Even so, Brooks said they’ve been working 10-hour days with the hopes of reopening the center in May.
For Brooks, who has lived in the SCV nearly all his life, it felt only right to save the center.
“My parents used to take me there. I’ve taken my kids there,” he said. “Once I saw that article … I knew that I had to make something happen.”
As it’s now been more than 25 years since Fleming and his brother Dave opened Mountasia, it’s a bittersweet feeling.
“It’s a fun chapter for our lives — we’re looking forward to spending more time with our families now, but I’m definitely going to be going there as a visitor because I want to see the smiles on the faces of people,” Fleming added. “I think that’s the thing I’m going to probably miss the most.”
Through the years, thousands of Santa Clarita Valley residents, both young and old, worked at the center, and it’s they who Fleming said made Mountasia what it was.
“We had the idea and the vision to do it, but really, its (success) was due to the hard work of all of the employees,” Fleming said. “The kudos really goes to those workers that we’ve had over the years.”
