Boss Battle Games moving to Castleton

Boss Battle Games is powering down this month at its Washington Square Mall location as the retro arcade and gaming center prepares to move to what its owners consider the next level—a 5,000-square-foot space at Castleton Square Mall.

“We’re really excited about the location,” said Dustin Burd, who opened Boss Battle in November 2015 along with his wife, Phylicia.

Boss Battle has about 70 arcade machines dating from the late 1970s to the mid 2000s in about 3,100 square feet. It also offers game play on modern and retro game consoles. The total footprint of the business is about 12,500 square feet, which includes 9,400 square feet for storage and a workshop where the games are repaired and maintained. Burd said much of the storage and maintenance space isn't used.

The new arcade will be 4,000 square feet, plus a 1,000-square-foot event space. The Burds will shift machine maintenance and storage to their home.

The roots of the business trace back five or six years, when Burd started buying broken arcade games and learning how to bring them back to life. 

“I just taught myself how to work on them and fix them by reading electrical manuals and trial and error,” said Burd, a machinist and welder by trade. He started the business after being laid off from a welding job. About two years ago, after a layoff of her own, Phylicia Burd joined him at Boss Battle full-time.

In preparation for the move, electrical contractors are starting work at the Castleton Square Mall location this week. They’re adding outlets and upgrading the store’s electrical panel so that it can handle the power demands of running an arcade. Boss Battle will occupy a space recently vacated by GlowGolf in the JC Penney wing of the mall.

Boss Battle will remain in operation at Washington Square through Jan. 27. If all goes according to schedule, the business will reopen Feb. 1 at Castleton Square.

In other retail news this week, we have an opening and some closings to report:

— Sola Salon has opened at the Fashion Mall at Keystone. The salon, which opened in November, occupies a 7,133-square-foot space that had been a long-standing vacancy and was formerly occupied by California Pizza Kitchen.

— Performance Bicycle’s Castleton shop at 8366 Castleton Corner Drive is liquidating its inventory as it, and all of the North Carolina-based retailer's stores, prepare to close. Performance Bicycle’s parent company, Philadelphia-based Advanced Sports Enterprises, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November. “As part of that process the company has made the strategic decision to close all 102 Performance Bicycle stores,” Boston-based liquidating firm Gordon Brothers said in a prepared statement.

— Datsa Pizza, 907 N. Pennsylvania St., closed on Dec. 29. The business opened in August 2005. "I want to thank you for your loyalty, your memories and your stories," the restaurant posted last month on its Facebook page. "It has been a wonderful 13 years."

— Pia Urban Café and Market, 2834 E. Washington St., closed Dec. 21. Owner Maria Bertram, a native of Puerto Rico, opened the shop in 2016. Bertram told IBJ in July that she aimed to “bring a little Puerto Rico to Indiana” through the shop, which sold Puerto Rican coffee, Cuban sandwiches and other fare. Bertram also used the shop as a way to help marginalized women build job skills and get back into the workforce.

— The 10 Johnson Avenue coffee shop in Irvington, which took its name from its address, closed Dec. 20. Greg Wolfe opened the shop in mid-2015. In a Facebook post last month, Wolfe said he decided to close the shop after both of his parents died in a plane crash in the spring of 2018.

“After looking hard at my alternatives, given that this business was a dream and venture I shared with my parents, I recognize it is time to close this chapter of my life and begin working on other entrepreneurial activities,” Wolfe wrote.