For three and a half decades, Tornado Terry's Family Amusement Center has been the place where Keller and far north Fort Worth kids grew up on pinball, prize counters and birthday cake. That run is almost over. The retro arcade and family-party staple on Keller Hicks Road will close on August 9, ending 35 years of games, flashing lights and ticket hauls. Owner Shannon Bell says prolonged road construction around the site has strangled walk-in traffic to the point that keeping the business open no longer adds up. With the final day less than a month away, the family is lining up ticket-redemption windows and equipment auctions before the doors close for good.
As reported by Community Impact, Bell posted on Facebook on June 10 that Tornado Terry's will close in August and that its 35th anniversary will also be its last day. The outlet notes the business began in Keller in 1989 and moved to its current Fort Worth address, 4530 Keller Hicks Road, soon after. The family told the outlet customers have until Aug. 9 to use tickets and claim prizes and that some games will be sold online.
Construction Blamed in Game Over
Bell has been warning for months that the multi-phase road work has made it difficult for regulars to reach the arcade and has scrambled the familiar routes that once fed the business. "The construction has 100% to do with the closure," Bell wrote on Facebook, according to Community Impact. She told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that revenue has fallen to a fraction of what it was a few years ago, that she has not taken a personal paycheck since last September and that she even sold a '68 Camaro to keep going.
City Project Details and Timeline
The City of Fort Worth lists the Keller Hicks Road improvements as a two-phase project valued at about $23.94 million and notes in its July update that Phase 2 paving and an eastbound one-way traffic pattern remain while crews complete paving, per the city's project page. Those traffic patterns have at times narrowed access along the corridor, a change owners like Bell say discouraged the kind of spur-of-the-moment visits that used to sustain neighborhood spots.
Final Days, Auctions and How to Make the Last Visit
The family says customers can spend tickets through Aug. 9 and that some games will be liquidated. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports the sale and a livestream tribute will be handled by Imran Acosta of Bidder Bros. The auction house's online listings show regular arcade equipment sales, and Tornado Terry's lists hours and the Fort Worth address for the final weeks.
Longtime customers say the arcade has been more than a business; it has been a neighborhood hangout where families marked birthdays, first dates and after-school victories. With the Aug. 9 closing fast approaching, the Bell family is asking former patrons to stop by, spend their tickets and share in a last-day tribute to the arcade's namesake and the decades of neighborhood play it provided.
