Vortex VR Arcade bringing virtual fun to the Falls

Robert Creenan, Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, N.Y.
·2 min read

Oct. 30—NIAGARA FALLS — One Niagara Welcome Center is taking a high-tech approach to bringing in tourists. It has opened a state-of-the art arcade with virtual reality (VR) experiences.

Vortex VR Arcade, located on the third floor of the visitor center at 360 Rainbow Boulevard, held its grand opening Sunday with a Halloween party.

The two flagship attractions are Omni Arena and a VR dark ride. Omni Arena has four people playing eight different VR games on omni-directional treadmills. The dark ride, as operating partner Paul Grenga's son Joe Grenga put it, is a seven-dimension experience with 3D glasses, seats moving in every direction, and even high winds blowing on participants.

"It's the closest thing in Niagara Falls to a Universal or Disney ride," Grenga said.

Other VR experiences have chairs simulating various motions, an X-ship that can simulate a roller coaster, and a car-racing station. Elsewhere in the arcade is standard game fare with skee ball, shooting, racing, crane, coin pushing and basketball games, where you can get tickets for prizes.

While virtual reality technology dates back to the 1970s and has been used for video games since the 1990s, it experienced a surge in the 2010s as companies made new VR headsets for home use like the Oculus Rift. Larger arcade chains such as Dave & Busters have brought in VR games for patrons to play.

Grenga is the Vortex arcade's in-house designer and marketer and his cousin Paolo Beilman, the owner of "The Barber" Co. in Niagara Falls, handles operations. Other cousins and brothers help run the arcade, too.

The third floor, at 15,000 square feet, used to be office space when the building was the headquarters of Occidental Chemical Corp. Work is ongoing to open another section of that floor by 2025.

The various virtual reality equipment is from China-based Owatch, which has a worldwide presence on the VR scene. None of the people who created the Vortex arcade are engineers, so they had to rely on support from the manufacturers to make sure everything is working mechanically.

Vortex had a soft opening in July 2022 and stayed open for guests as kinks in the equipment were worked out. Following Labor Day last year, people were still coming in; families hosted birthday parties there throughout the winter.

Grenga said that while trying to bring in tourists, the arcade is for locals too.

"We're looking to compete with Clifton Hill and whatever Canada has to offer," Grenga said. "Niagara Falls is such a tourist heavy location, but after Labor Day, it dies off. People are looking for something to do."