DreamPark Opens Mixed Reality Theme Park at West Canal Yards in Seattle
Grab your friends and family, and come visit DreamPark at West Canal Yards. Tickets Available at DreamPark's website: visitdreampark.com/seattle
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Situated on the water, the DreamPark location in Ballard is centrally located to Seattle landmarks and major employers, making it an ideal destination. DreamPark was founded by industry veterans Brent Bushnell, a Seattle-based entrepreneur and son of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese founder Nolan Bushnell; Aidan Wolf, co-founder of AR House and a former creator at SNAP; and Kevin Habich, co-founder of Kevaid and CTO/co-founder of Frameri. DreamPark was featured on ABC's Shark Tank in April 2025. DreamPark's unique and novel entertainment experience engages families, adults seeking social activities and corporate teams looking for innovative team-building solutions.
"This West Canal Yards installation is a testament to our ability to create immersive and profitable entertainment units quickly and efficiently," said Aidan Wolf, Co-Founder and CEO of DreamPark. "It's the world's largest mixed reality theme park, offering an unparalleled experience that differentiates us in the virtual reality marketplace. We are thrilled to bring this to the vibrant Seattle community, especially given its strong game audience and proximity to major tech companies and attractions."
The West Canal Yards installation, spearheaded by lead developer Ned Carner, addresses the growing need to revitalize idle retail spaces across the country. The national office vacancy rate was 19.4% in May, up 160 basis points year-over-year, with occupancy unlikely to rise in the near future, according to CommercialCafe. DreamPark's rapid deployment capability, combined with the capacity to handle bigger installations, addresses key challenges in transforming empty storefronts into revenue-generating entertainment destinations.
'With West Canal Yards, our goal is to create a place that invites people to visit and enjoy our working waterfront,' said Ned Carner, founder and president of Wing Point Partners and visionary behind West Canal Yards. 'DreamPark plays a key role in that vision by quickly revitalizing the space and helping to transform it into a vibrant entertainment hub for family fun.'
DreamPark eliminates the million-dollar construction costs of typical VR venues by requiring no permanent infrastructure. The immersive, multiplayer experience generates enough revenue to cover costs within its first month, making it a cost-effective way to revitalize underused spaces.
Grab your friends and family, and come visit DreamPark at West Canal Yards on Saturday, July 19, 2025. Tickets Available at DreamPark's website: visitdreampark.com /seattle
About DreamPark
DreamPark is creating the world's first downloadable mixed-reality theme park platform, transforming real-world spaces into immersive adventures. Using the latest XR technology, we overlay digital worlds onto physical environments, creating magical experiences accessible through Meta Quest headsets or mobile devices. With strategic locations across major cities, we're building the world's largest theme park—one that exists everywhere and is open to everyone. Founded by industry veterans Brent Bushnell, Aidan Wolf, and Kevin Habich, and backed by top VCs like Long Journey Ventures and Founders, Inc., DreamPark is reimagining how people play, connect, and experience their communities in the mixed reality era.
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Chicago Tribune
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Siskel Center director Rebecca Fons is hired away by London's Barbican Centre
Rebecca Fons, the director of programming at the Siskel Film Center in Chicago since 2021, is the new head of cinema for London's multidisciplinary Barbican Centre, effective Sept. 1. The Barbican will announce the appointment early Tuesday, but word of Fons' new post made the conversational rounds late Monday at the national Art House Convergence gathering of art-house cinema exhibitors, held once again in Chicago. Fons, 43, will oversee a team of film programmers at the Barbican, which contains three cinema auditoriums. 'The opportunity at the Barbican is so incredible,' she told the Tribune late Monday. 'To be able to program for a new audience, to be part of a team with so much cross-disciplinary opportunity, it's very exciting.' Fons and her husband, Chicago-based filmmaker Jack Newell, are leasing a flat in London's Bloomsbury neighborhood and will maintain their Chicago residence as well. Fons said she has programmed the Siskel Film Center's calendar through October, with some of the late 2025 and early 2026 programming in place as well. The Barbican is best known as the Royal Shakespeare Company's London home base, with a wealth of theater, film, dance, music and other art forms sharing the building that opened in 1982. Fons' transition means the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, which oversees the activities of the Siskel Film Center, is conducting a search for a film programming head. The Iowa native's canny array of cinematic offerings brought the Film Center out of the muck of the pandemic. She was hired first on a part-time basis, then went full-time later in 2021. She was the Tribune's Chicagoan of the Year in film for 2022.
