By T. Scott Boatright
The sword has finally been pulled from the stone, and Excalibur is on its way to Ruston.
During Monday evening’s monthly City Council meeting, Ruston’s Board of Aldermen authorized the city to enter into a Cooperative Endeavor Agreement with Excalibur FEC of Ruston LLC and to sell property to the Excalibur corporation in connection with economic development for the city.
Steve Privitor, who owns and operates Excalibur Family Entertainment Center in both West Monroe and El Dorado, Arkansas, will own the Ruston location along with his two sons. It will be located on 4.5 acres of land adjacent to the Ruston High School baseball field at the Ruston Sports Complex.
Privitor said the Ruston location will include a Go-Kart track, miniature golf, bumper cars, arcade games, virtual reality consoles and numerous arcade-style games.
“We’ll get started with the Go-Cart track first because that’s all outside work needed to be done,” Privitor said. “We hope to start that very soon.
“As far as the actual building itself, we still have to work out plans with the first marshal and things like that, but as soon as we can get approvals, we’ll get started building that, too.”
Privitor said there is no real timeline set yet but added that hopes it could be finished as soon as next summer and at least before the end of 2025.
He said the Ruston location will be larger than the Excalibur location in West Monroe, which Privitor said has been in operation for around 18 years now.
“This one will be bigger — about 13,000 square feet,” Privitor said.
Excalibur FEC of Ruston LLC is the business entity that has discussed potential plans to build an entertainment center within the confines of the Ruston Sports Complex.
“We’ve been looking at Ruston for quite a while now,” Privitor said. “The Sports Complex is an ideal location because we won’t have to rely on only parish residents to support it because of all of the visitors the sports complex brings in.”
“Even before we expanded to El Dorado, we had been looking for a location in Ruston and this seems like the perfect one.”
In another matter on the meeting agenda, Ruston’s Board of Aldermen authorized execution of an agreement with JB&B Capital LLC to lease equipment used to pull cables for underground infrastructure improvements.
The City Council also approved an ordinance amending the city zoning code related to wireless telecommunication facilities and also approved a resolution establishing fees for zoning and planning services, applications, appeals and permits.
“At its April meeting the Planning and Zoning Commission reviewed and recommended some revisions involving cell towers and this is approval to accept those recommendations,” said Ruston Zoning Administrator Jim Hays.
Ruston’s Board of Aldermen also gave its approval for the city to accept its portion — $89,274 — of the proposed 2024-25 budget for the Lincoln Parish Sales and Use Tax Commission.
