WILDWOOD – The storefront at 141 W. Wildwood Ave. sat empty for nearly a decade.
But over the winter, the retail space just off Pacific Avenue was loaded with pinball machines, Skee-Ball lanes and other vintage arcade games from the collection of Randy Senna, 57.
The games were formerly at Senna’s Remember When Pinball Palace & Retro Arcade in the Boardwalk Mall, which Senna operated for seven years. Senna’s collection of thousands of games he curated and restored himself was featured in a 2011 episode of “Hoarders.”
Senna tried to move the Retro Arcade to the former Strand movie theatre on the Boardwalk, but nothing panned out. Then he contacted the owner of the storefront on Wildwood Avenue and began renting the space.
Senna took his application for operating at the new location to the Planning and Zoning Board meeting June 4. Senna said the board unanimously approved his application.
The zoning office could not be reached for comment.
“My plan is to do the same as I did at the Boardwalk Mall, operating a Retro Arcade where folks step back in time into their childhood,” Senna said.
Senna filled the retail area, built to be divided into three storefronts, with some of the games from the Boardwalk Mall arcade. The rest are in storage.
The storefront previously held a hair salon, and in 2017, it was used for prop storage for the detective film “Wetlands,” filmed in Wildwood that year, Senna said.
It was built about 10 years ago because a developer bought the land to construct condos. Since the land was in a retail zone, storefronts had to be built at ground level, according to Senna. There are condo units on the upper levels.
The building is directly behind Randyland, the former Woolworth’s department store that Senna purchased in 1996 and that he hopes to open as a nonprofit arcade museum.
Senna said zoning issues have prevented him from opening Randyland. Wildwood Mayor Ernie Troiano has said the building needs to be brought up to code.
Senna’s new space does not have electricity or ceilings, and Senna said he had to go through the condo association to request having electricity installed.
“It had zero outlets, it didn’t even have any lights,” Senna said. “They put up a couple temporary lights, but I need a lot of outlets to plug all these machines in.”
The Wildwood Construction Office issued a stop-work order on the installation. “No permit for electrical work” is handwritten on the stop-work sticker on the front door.
Senna worries that inspection delays will push the opening of the new Retro Arcade to next summer. The soonest he hopes to open is July, he said.
“It depends on how much work they want to do,” he said. “If you got to put a ceiling all across here, yeah, it’s going to be really hard now that (these games) are all here.”
Senna doesn’t yet know which hours he will operate.
“The height of the boardwalk business is between 8 and 11 o’clock at night, but this isn’t the boardwalk,” he said. “This will have to find its level when it’s open.”
Senna hopes the approval of the new Retro Arcade will lead the way for Randyland to open “maybe a year or two from now.”
“This is a real turning point for the future of Randyland,” Senna said. “Woolworth’s is the same zoning area as this new building, and only 50 feet away.”
The goal of the Retro Arcade, he said, is to please patrons with the thrill of playing games, not with prizes to win.
“The games on the boardwalk now are all about redemption,” he said. “It’s all about tickets, tokens, the lure of the prize. In my day… it wasn’t about that. It was about playing the games for fun.”
To contact Taylor Henry, email thenry@cmcherald.com.
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