Escapology Fayetteville opens; new tenants coming to Freedom Town Center

New buildings are going up to make room for additional shopping space at Freedom Town Center.

That’s the sprawling 49-acre shopping plaza with, among other retailers, Dick’s, Field & Stream and Sprouts Farmers Market.

Believe it or not, this shopping plaza near Skibo and Cliffdale roads has now been open since September 2017. And it’s still growing as additional tenant space is being built.

The Escapology escape room, at 2770 Freedom Parkway Drive, Suite 4, held a soft opening on March 26. Escapology operates from a building in front of Buy Buy Baby.

“We’re getting ready to do a grand opening shortly,” owner Dan Cooke said Friday. “We’re open for business and have gone through the soft opening period training the staff.”

That recreational franchise should be an interesting addition to the area. As its website states, Escapology “is a high adrenaline escape game where players are locked inside a themed room and must complete their mission before time runs out. During the 60-minute experience, players are immersed into a real-life adventure where they must find hidden clues, crack codes, solve challenging puzzles and escape.”

Hours are Monday through Thursday, 5 to 9 p.m.; Friday, 5 p.m. to midnight; Saturday, noon to midnight; and Sunday, 1 to 8 p.m.

Three months ago, ownership partner Phil Wilson of RealtyLink, the real estate developer and manager of the center based in Greenville, South Carolina, named a list of new tenants that had signed leases with the shopping center. Along with Escapology, he named Alpaca Peruvian Charcoal Chicken, the Maple Street Biscuit Company, a First Watch Daytime Cafe breakfast place, Nothing Bundt Cakes, Jacked Nutrition, Salsarita’s Fresh Cantina and Spectrum.

“There are a couple of others. We just haven’t finished the leases,” Wilson said Friday. “We’ve got one tenant for the Baby Garlic (Bistro) space that we’re finalizing.”

 

That tenant, he added, would be a Mediterranean restaurant. Baby Garlic Bistro closed in November.

The tenant space for the Alpaca Peruvian Charcoal Chicken restaurant, behind Jason’s Deli, should be finished in June, Wilson said, with the establishment opening in August or September. The building for the Maple Street Biscuit Company is under construction. Maple Street and Jacked Nutrition will share the same building, which should be finished next month. Those businesses will probably open about 60 days later.

The First Watch Daytime Cafe will share the building space with Alpaca.

As for Salsarita’s Fresh Cantina, the restaurant will operate in a freestanding space across the street from Jason’s Deli. That building is under construction and should be completed in August.

 

Nothing Bundt Cakes will share the same outparcel with Five Guys, near Sprouts.

The Spectrum offices will be in a space in front of Hobby Lobby.

With the additional tenants, the center will encompass about 25 stores, restaurants and businesses. Wilson said in January that the addition of probably another four or five tenants will complete the shopping plaza.

 

American Deli update

Those who live on post or in the vicinity of the Fort Bragg gate on Yadkin Road may have noticed the gradual transformation of a former Bojangle’s location into what is now being pitched as American Deli.

From the looks of it, the new restaurant at 5854 Yadkin Road should be open about any time.

The company website states: “Coming Soon. Fayetteville Yadkin NC.” Of course, the website said that same thing in early February.

American Deli does not have a local phone listing.

Perhaps American Deli can help fill the void since Wiener Works closed on Yadkin a couple of years ago. For years, that fast-food restaurant provided a convenient go-to for my family when we were bushed from a day of yard work or it was just too late to cook.

We still miss that place, but American Deli holds plenty of promise based on its menu.

American Deli International describes itself online as “a franchisor of quick-service restaurants featuring chicken wings, Philly cheese steaks and other freshly prepared, grilled or fried items.” The company dates to 1989 with its first restaurant opening in Atlanta. Today, there are more than 150 locations, with roughly 95 percent independently owned and operated.