Escape Room Craze Comes To Alpharetta

ALPHARETTA, GA -- A change in a segment of the Windward Master Plan will allow a form of entertainment growing in popularity to set up shop in Alpharetta.

The City Council at its Aug. 22 meeting voted to approve a request to amend the plan for Pod 56 to add "recreation facilities, indoor" to the list of permitted uses. This change will allow Odyssey Escape Game to open a corporate, team-building entertainment venue at 1111 Alderman Drive Suite 210.

According to city documents, the applicant plans to operate an escape room business in a 3,758 square-foot suite in the 400 North Business Park. The business would be geared towards corporate groups, but would also be open to the public.

Odyssey Escape Game notes the escape room industry is new in the United States, with the first of its venues opening in 2013. The proposed hours of operation would be from noon to 8 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday, 10 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday.

Michael Cook, the brains behind the venture, said he hopes to open the business by Nov. 1, but no later than mid-November. Along with corporations, the business would also be open to the public at night and during the weekends.

Cook said Odssey Escape Game would have four-themed rooms in which groups of people would be figuratively "locked" inside a room. They would have an hour to participate in games or solve puzzles to "break free" of the room.

The businessman's experience with the industry began when he joined a company called Amazing Escape Room, which has more than a dozen venues across the country. He rose through the ranks and became the company's chief operating officer before deciding to set out on his own and launch his own spin on the industry.

Along with Alpharetta, Cook said he hopes to open venues in Buford, Greenville, S.C., Tallahassee, Fla., and Charlotte, N.C.

Alpharetta is the perfect hub for escape rooms, as the form of entertainment continues to grow in popularity.

Additionally, Cook said HubSpot, a company specializing in marketing and sales software, ranks escape rooms as the third most popular team-building activities corporations are seeking to explore, with volunteering as first and dinner theaters as second.

Escape rooms, he added, are "great alternatives" to the top two activities, as they force you to think and engage as active participants.

“It's different than anything people have done before, and that's why the whole industry has exploded in the U.S. over the last four years," Cook stated.

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