A vacant big-box retail store on North Mt. Juliet Road is now packed with blacklight mini-golf, duckpin bowling lanes and a 7D motion ride after Good Clean Fun! Family Entertainment Center held its grand opening on Saturday. Owner David Cahill spent more than a year and a half planning the venue, which fills 28,000 square feet inside a former Bargain Hunt store in the Valley Center shopping plaza.
Cahill said the center was designed to give families something to do indoors no matter the weather, according to News Channel 5 Nashville. There's no cover charge to walk in the door; visitors pay as they go for whichever games and attractions they want to play, and Cahill said the goal was to serve people across a wide range of ages, from kids and teenagers to young adults and grown-ups. Beyond the 18-hole blacklight mini-golf course and arcade games, the lineup includes duckpin bowling, a 7D interactive ride and private party rooms for birthdays and corporate events, per the City of Mt. Juliet. Snacks are also available on-site.
A Local Dad Already Made It a Weekend Ritual
Nick Schwarz, who visited the center with his son Ivan and daughter, told the station it's a fun local place near his home. The Schwarz family returned for a second day, meaning Schwarz visited the center twice over the three-day holiday weekend. That kind of quick repeat visit is exactly the neighborhood draw Cahill said he was chasing when he set out to build an indoor option families wouldn't have to drive far to reach.
Building plans for the project were submitted to city officials in May 2026, and Mt. Juliet leaders hosted an official preview tour on September 4, just days before the Labor Day weekend grand opening, according to the city. That is a fast turnaround for a project of this size, moving from permit submission to a packed opening weekend in about four months.
Filling a Gap That's Existed for Years
Before Good Clean Fun! opened, Mt. Juliet families looking for indoor arcades, mini-golf or birthday party venues had to travel to Nashville, Hermitage or Hendersonville, the city notes. That gap stood out increasingly as the suburb grew; Mount Juliet's population climbed to an estimated 46,389 residents in 2026, a 16.9% jump from the 39,682 counted in the 2020 U.S. Census, according to World Population Review. Census-derived data compiled by Data USA also shows Mt. Juliet residents hold a median household income of $107,068 and a median age of 39.3 years, suburban numbers that point to steady demand for family leisure spending.
The center's home at Valley Center sits next to McFarland Farms, a 110-acre mixed-use development that broke ground in March 2025 and is slated to bring 659 residential units and 35,000 square feet of commercial space to the area, according to Main Street Media. The 135,000-square-foot Valley Center complex itself had already gone through more than $1 million in exterior renovations before its largest retail space was converted into the entertainment anchor, per LoopNet property records.
Part of a Bigger Shift in Family Entertainment
Good Clean Fun!'s conversion of dead retail space into an entertainment venue mirrors a national trend. The U.S. family entertainment center market reached an estimated $28.2 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow to $70.1 billion by 2032 as spending shifts toward experiential entertainment, according to research cited by Urban Air Adventure Park. Industry research published in 2026 found that physical play areas and arcades make up 60% of visits to these centers nationally, where the average venue spans roughly 15,000 square feet, according to Business Research Insights, making Good Clean Fun!'s 28,000-square-foot footprint nearly double the typical size.
