TMone co-founder to launch North Liberty entertainment center

NORTH LIBERTY - John Burchert is no stranger to taking on new business ventures.

The 39-year-old who co-founded Iowa City's call center business TMone, now known as Mass Markets, and is an investor in Iowa City's EDEN Lounge and Iowa Chop House, admitted his latest project - a 37,000-square-foot entertainment center - is arguably his most ambitious.

'What we have proposed right now is a whopper, as I would say,” he said Wednesday.

Burchert's proposal is for an $8 million entertainment center that would include a laser tag arena, an arcade with roughly 75 arcade-style games, billiards area, boccie ball lanes, sports bar and restaurant, outdoor patio with fire pits and 20 bowling lanes - with eight of those lanes boutique-style for special events or group settings.

The entertainment center - which would provide close to 250 full- and part-time jobs - is proposed for land Burchert already owns on Penn Street, just east of Interstate 380 in North Liberty. The building would be located near the corner of Penn Street and Penn Court, with the patio overlooking a nearby pond.

Burchert last month provided the North Liberty City Council the first glimpse at his proposal, which includes a partnership with Brunswick, an organization with more than 200 similar facilities nationwide.

The council is scheduled to host a public hearing on the project as part of its Dec. 22 meeting.

While some 85 percent of the project cost has been secured, Burchert said he is in communications with the city for possible financial assistance to help fill the project's gap in necessary funding.

In a November memo to the council, City Administrator Ryan Heiar said if the council is interested in supporting the project, the city's urban renewal plan could be amended yet this year, with an agreement ready to consider in January.

If approved, the project could be ready to open by November 2016, Burchert said.

With experience in several Johnson County business ventures, Burchert said the professional contacts he made since founding TMone in 2003 have helped pave the way for this entertainment center project. It was those resources that were used to create Maingredient, Burchert's boutique restaurant and entertainment management company, which was started this year.

For about the past five years, Burchert and his company worked to gather demographic information on households, average age as well as growth potentials to determine the viability of such a project.

The end result of the research was constant - the North Liberty market, which includes nearby Coralville and Iowa City, is perfect for the entertainment center - which will capture an unserved market while not detracting from existing facilities in the area, he said.

'We knew that we needed to understand overall demographics of the area,” he said. 'We wanted to go as big as we possibly could because we wanted to capture the full market.”

Burchert said he hopes his project ultimately becomes a place for all ages, with something for everyone.

'If I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it right. It's going to be on point, it's going to be big and it's going to be grandiose,” he said. 'We wanted to create an environment where everyone is welcome.”

TMone was purchased by Jacksonville, Fla.-based Enhanced Resource Centers in 2013, but was bought back by fellow co-founder Anthony Marlowe in October and renamed Mass Markets.