ABOVE: Andy Hudson poses next to a Dr. Mario arcade game inside Hudz Family Fun Zone, which the longtime local pharmacist plans to open by year’s end in the former Doug’s Compounding Pharmacy building at 137 N. Market St. in Paxton’s downtown. LEFT: Workers for Tolono based Shade Solutions Inc. install a new awning at 137 N. Market St. in downtown Paxton on Thursday, revealing the name of the new business coming there: Hudz Family Fun Zone.
PAXTON — Not to be confused with the Arcade restaurant directly across the street, an arcade is indeed coming soon to downtown Paxton.
By year’s end, Andy Hudson plans to open Hudz Family Fun Zone at 137 N. Market St., which has been vacant since the sudden closure of Doug’s Compounding Pharmacy nearly two years ago.
Hudson said the old-school arcade — featuring 15-20 original retro arcade games, plus air hockey, billiards, skee-ball, a basketball shooting game, cornhole, mini putt-putt golf and ping-pong, as well as a vintage jukebox — will be for kids and adults alike. There is even a separate play room with a padded floor where parents can bring their younger children.
“When things have been put out on Facebook, asking, ‘What does Paxton need?,’ a lot of people have chimed in, ‘We need more things for our kids to do,” Hudson said Thursday after the name of the business was unveiled with the installation of its exterior awning. “We have a great park district, but this just adds to the variety of things that kids can do in our town. This just adds yet one more thing for people from Paxton and the surrounding area to do without going to Champaign.”
Will Brumleve photos/Ford County Chronicle
Hudson said he hopes Hudz will be an attraction, complementing the experience of visiting downtown Paxton. He hopes that those who visit Hudz will also visit local restaurants or retail shops on Market Street.
“I think it will fit into what else is in the downtown — it’s not competing with any other current business,” Hudson said. “I hope to bring people in who will shop, eat, play in the downtown and bring in revenue to other restaurants and shops and that type of thing.”
A longtime local pharmacist, Hudson is not relying on making a lot of money for himself through his new business, although he would prefer that it at least “be able to support itself.”
“Hopefully it pays the light bill and the insurance, etc.,” Hudson said.
Among the 15-20 retro arcade games at Hudz Family Fun Zone is this two-player NASCAR game, which features professional racecar drivers from back when the game was produced, the arcade’s owner, Andy Hudson, said.
Hudz comprises all but about 500 square feet of the 5,500-square-foot, one-story building. The arcade area is in a large room at the front of the building, with ping-pong available in a smaller middle room and the big back room dedicated to a variety of games and purposes, ranging from mini putt-putt golf to bags to possibly even board games. In another room — where the pharmacy area was once located — will be the younger children’s play area.
Hudz should be open before the end of 2024, Hudson said, after some remaining lighting work is completed.
Hudz will be open regular hours and also available to rent for birthday parties or other occasions, Hudson said. During regular hours, one admission fee would be charged for a block of time in the arcade, Hudson said, with no additional fees charged to play any of the games. There could be a similar arrangement for groups renting the facility, as well, said Hudson, noting that groups would be allowed to bring in food and use the facility’s kitchen and can also use the vending machines on hand.
Andy Hudson holds the controller as he poses inside one of the games at Hudz Family Fun Zone, which the longtime local pharmacist plans to open by year’s end in the former Doug’s Compounding Pharmacy building at 137 N. Market St. in Paxton’s downtown.
“I’ve also contemplated opening it during day for a place for seniors to go for having a cup of coffee or to watch TV in the back area,” Hudson noted.
As of last week, 11 restored retro arcade games were already on site, with three more set to arrive soon. Hudson said he planned to add “possibly a few more” arcade games prior to opening, too, for a total ranging from 15 to 20. After opening, some of those games could be swapped out occasionally for new ones, too, Hudson noted.
Most of the games on hand were purchased from a man in Indiana, Hudson said, with the rest bought locally. They include games like Dr. Mario and Street Fighter II, which were hugely popular decades ago.
Hudson said he settled on the name Hudz because it had a nice ring to it. Plus, “Hud” had been a nickname of Hudson’s dad, Carl Hudson Jr.
“We were trying to think of names and were like, ‘OK, we could call it Arcadia or whatever,” Hudson said. “But a lot of names were already taken by somewhere else, or we didn’t want to give the wrong impression by calling it, like, Gaming Zone, where people might think it’s the gambling stuff. So we just thought that (Hudz Family Fun Zone) was just a good name to tie it all together.”
Andy Hudson plays mini putt-putt golf in the back room at Hudz Family Fun Zone, which the longtime local pharmacist plans to open by year’s end in the former Doug’s Compounding Pharmacy building at 137 N. Market St. in Paxton’s downtown.
With the Arcade restaurant nearby, calling it the Arcade was excluded early as a possibility. Despite his efforts to limit any confusion between the two businesses, Hudson realizes there could be some coming, perhaps with visitors new to town mistakenly entering the wrong one.
“Maybe it will bring them some more business,” Hudson said.
Workers for Tolono-based Shade Solutions Inc. installed the new awning for Hudz on Thursday. The awning was one of the final jobs as part of a smaller-scale renovation to the building that included the installation of new carpet inside and a new stone facade outside. As of last week, the only work left was the installation of some lighting, Hudson said.
A basketball shooting game, right, and skee-ball are among the many games available at Hudz Family Fun Zone, owned by Andy Hudson and set to open by the end of 2024 at 137 N. Market St.,which coincidentally is directly across from the unaffiliated Arcade Cafe.
“Really, we had to do very little work to it — the building was in great shape,” said Hudson, who purchased the building last December for $175,000.
The building had sat vacant since the previous winter, when foreclosure proceedings began against its then-owner. At the time of purchase, Hudson said he wanted to ensure it would be owned by someone local and invested in the community. Hudson, a 1991 Paxton-Buckley-Loda High School graduate who became the third-generation owner of Hudson Drug & Hallmark Shop in downtown Paxton in 2007, said he just wants to do his part in seeing the community thrive.
“There’s so many good things happening now (in Paxton), and you’d hate to see, in probably the busiest block in the downtown, a big empty hole in it,” Hudson said. “So, I think, just to help fill that is a good thing.”
The steel-frame building was built in the late 1960s and was originally a dime store and then a True Value Hardware store before it became Doug’s Compounding Pharmacy in 1997 under the ownership of Doug Higgins, who later sold the pharmacy.
Workers for Tolono-based Shade Solutions Inc. install a new awning at 137 N. Market St. in downtown Paxton on Thursday. Once the site of a compounding pharmacy, the one-story building is now owned by local pharmacist Andy Hudson.