An entertainment company providing team-based challenges for all ages says it is coming to Orland Square, joining the existing Sky Zone and soon-to-open Slick City Action Park.
Time Mission allows teams of two to five people to collect points in 60-minute, 90-minute or two-hour long challenges that involve both physical and mental obstacles. The company, based in Tampa, Florida, operates in New York, Rhode Island and Virginia, with locations opening in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and in Mount Prospect along with Orland Park.
“We knew we wanted to do one north suburb and one south suburb to start off, and then we were going to kind of see from there if that saturates the market or if we can do more than that,” said David Larson, Time Mission operations managing partner. “We love the Orland Park market — as far as the south suburbs, I don’t know if you could do better than Orland Park.”
The venue will be along a ring road around Orland Square, where a Dick’s Sporting Goods is hoping to move into the former Sears anchor space.
Time Mission started off as a project taken on by a group of artists from the United States and Europe right before COVID-19 hit, Larson said. In a “time themed adventure,” teams aim to fix a ruptured timeline through traveling to different scenes in both the past and the future.
What that looks like, Larson says, is that players complete challenges in themed rooms, each with their own story, to earn points.
“It could be like a World War II submarine that you’re transported into. It could be a house in Victorian England. It could be a spaceship in the future,” Larson said.
Rather than having to complete each room individually, teams can choose when and where they progress to earn as many points as they can. Larson said the longer that teams play, the more points they’re usually able to earn.
The experience is open to all ages, with other locations gaining participants as part of field trips, corporate events, bachelor/bachelorette parties and more.
Larson said he loves to see groups including families across generations enjoy the experience, as different challenges allow people with a wide variety of skills to shine.
“To me that’s the most exciting aspect of it — that you could have the multigenerational groups all playing on the same team, and each of them is a hero in particular rooms,” Larson said.
Larson said bringing the concept to a 10,000-square-foot space at 66 Orland Square Drive, adjacent to two other entertainment venues, will help draw people in.
In April, the Orland Park Sky Zone drew attention after police were called to disperse a crowd of about 200 children and teenagers. One juvenile was cited for battery after surveillance video from inside the business showed “mass pandemonium,” including juveniles running out of Sky Zone and families trying to gather up their kids, Orland Park police Cmdr. Scott Lefko told the Daily Southtown at the time.
Larson said he was aware of the past issue with a crowd at Sky Zone but is not concerned about adding another entertainment venue to Orland Square.
“My sense is that Orland Park has that under control,” Larson said. “Of course, it takes cooperation between the municipality and the business owners to make sure that those things don’t happen or if they seem like they might start to be happening, that the communication is good … I think it’s just everybody being vigilant.”
Larson said Time Mission has met with Orland Park village officials but are waiting on architects to finish blueprints to submit for board approval. The goal is to begin construction in late November for a spring 2026 opening.
ostevens@chicagotribune.com