Retro arcade and tech training academy to partner up at Circle Centre

Rick Barretto, co-founder of Video Game Palooza, poses with some of his vintage arcade games. (Photo provided by Circle Centre Mall)

Gameplay at Circle Centre Mall’s Video Game Palooza Charity Arcade is helping to fund scholarships for Hope Training Academy, a tech-focused education provider that plans to open in the mall by summer.

Rick Barretto, co-founder of the arcade and Hope Training Academy, said the not-for-profit academy that provides IT instruction to high school graduates has operated at Lafayette Square Mall, Flanner House, Martin University and Indiana Wesleyan University during the past decade.

“We transform these spaces into labs where our students can have hands-on experiences, which in my opinion is the most value you can get when teaching this stuff,” Barretto said. “It’s not just like reading a book. It’s experiential.”

Hope Training Academy will take over a Level 4 space at the mall previously occupied by Purdue Polytechnic High School.

Fans of games such as Ms. Pac-Man and Mario Bros. can help the Hope Training Academy cause by visiting the Video Game Palooza Charity Arcade on Level 3 of the mall.

Open since NBA All-Star Weekend, the arcade doesn’t require players to feed quarters into the 60 vintage cabinet machines collected at the mall. Instead, an on-site clerk accepts $10 for an hour of play or $20 for all-day play.

Barretto and his wife, Cara Barretto, previously took their Video Game Palooza concept to special events and pop-culture conventions.

“We’ve never had [the arcade and academy] together under one roof until now,” Rick Barretto said.

Barretto is an Indiana University alum who’s launched about a dozen tech companies, including arcade cabinet maker DreamAuthentics and law enforcement interrogation software iRecord.

After college, his collection of upright arcade games began with acquisitions of Centipede and Discs of Tron.

In December, Hendricks Commercial Properties announced that it was in talks to acquire Circle Centre from the mall’s longtime ownership group, Circle Centre Development Co., and had a three-party deal with the city and the Indiana Economic Development Corp. to overhaul the property.

Luke Aeschliman, Circle Centre’s senior general manager, said the downtown mall is striving to maximize its value in the meantime.

“It’s our job to create value or add value for our client, for the community and for stakeholders,” Aescliman said. “While we have this massive retail footprint, we need to find ways to continue to engage the physical space. … Circle Centre has been going to a mixed-use project for the last decade. Everything we’re doing currently to maximize value syncs up pretty well with what the future holds for this property.”