Lynchburg, VA (312 Border St)

312 Border St was a franchised Showbiz Pizza Place owned by 'Adventure Restaurant Corporation' that opened on September 1, 1983.⁽¹⁾

Stages

When the store first opened, they had a regular Rock-afire Explosion. The location underwent Concept Unification in 1991 and would remain as a 3-Stage until around the Fall of 1994 when Creative Engineering converted the stage back into a Rock-Afire Explosion during the store's conversion to Billy Bob's Pizza, albeit with remnants of the 3-Stage. The show's animatronics would be sold during the 1999 auction of the store's space, where they would then be stored into a barn.⁽²⁾ The stage would still remain by the time the space was reopened as Billy Joe's Ice Cream Parlor, despite having no animatronics on it with some stage props and curtains left behind during Billy Joe's operation until its closure in 2007. Nearly 13 years later, in 2020, Connor Leschinsky and Sptproductions purchased the animatronic characters. Connor would get Beach Bear and Dook, along with the cosmetics of Rolfe, Mitzi, and Fatz, and Jack would have the rest. All of the bots have been sold off to private collectors.https://youtu.be/Ht-IAh0a0xg

History

SPP & CEC

Lynchburg opened on September 1st, 1983 as the second Showbiz Pizza Place in Virginia as a franchised location. It featured a unique exterior that was seen at 4 other locations. Lynchburg was also the second location to get this exterior. The also had the game room, the sports room, and the showroom. The store would remain unchanged until late 1988. They received the 1988 Remodel. This remodel gave the store colored checkers, blue and white awnings, the SPP Campground backdrop for Billy Bob's stage and added PTT wall art. The PTT art would be left there until its closure. They also got a Chuck E. walkaround costume from the early 80s. The mascot didn't have a derby hat. The store would get Concept Unification around Late 1991. Despite the store getting CU, the rest didn't change. (Minus the Billy Bob Merry Go Round ride having the top hat removed and being repainted.) along with that, the store's menu board and the sports room weren't removed too. The exterior went unchanged as it kept it's SPP name and 'Now Appearing' signs next to the entrance.

Billy Bob's Pizza Conversion

The store would close down by the Fall of 1994 (based on advertisements of the location in August 1994)⁽³⁾ as of a result of the franchisee deciding to remodel the store into a Billy Bob's Pizza. Creative Engineering would convert the store's Munch's Make Believe Band stage back into a Rock-Afire Explosion during the conversion. The store would presumably reopen on December 12, 1994 under the Billy Bob's Pizza name,⁽⁴⁾ with newspaper advertisements documented 4 days after its presumed reopening.⁽⁵⁾

Billy Bob's Closure & Auction

Billy Bob's would then likely close down in 1998 and would eventually sell off their fixtures and equipment in an auction hosted on August 4th, 1999,⁽⁶⁾ where the store's animatronics would be sold, including arcade games and some stage props and curtains.⁽⁶⁾

Billy Joe's Ice Cream Parlor

After the auction, nothing would happen until in December of 2001 when plans emerged to turn the space of the former Billy Bob's into a restaurant/ice cream parlor.⁽⁶⁾ Those plans would go through as the store eventually reopened as Billy Joe's Ice Cream Parlor in 2002, where the place left the stage intact likely with some of its props and curtains. In 2007, Billy Joe's closed and would leave the restaurant empty. The exterior and interior became a victim of constant vandalism and would have various walls broken into for years.

Building Purchases & Demolition

On June 23, 2011, the building was purchased and redevelopment plans started to become an interest, with the Lynchburg Chamber of Commerce, purchasing the property and requesting $3,000,000 for complete redevelopment. Local Virginia architects, Wiley and Wilson, gave the Commerce design plans, but eventually, all fell through. The building was sold again on June 29, 2016, to Woodspring and was demolished in April 2021 for a new hotel. ⁽⁹⁾ There was an unconfirmed rumor that an anonymous user was going to purchase the animatronics from Connor Leschinsky and Jack Turner for a new ice cream parlor idea until they canceled it for unknown reasons.

Videos

Link	Description	Published Date
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OnEzIJXjlI&t=550s	Store footage from 1989 that shows off the RAE	Aug 28, 2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egE56Yqhn_Y&t=77s	Store footage from 1990 that shows the RAE	Sep 5, 2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfyzJNztkSY&t=10s	Store footage from 1991 that shows the RAE	Sep 9, 2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybDrN4zOsnk&t=161s	Store footage from 1993 that shows the 3 Stage	Sep 20, 2023
https://youtu.be/P8MK1Q9mQn4?si=ciFuFUD03okUVbnx	Store footage from 1994 that shows the 3 Stage	Sep 12, 2023
https://youtu.be/dPzJ9UM8xDI	RAE inside of the barn	Jan 18, 2020
https://youtu.be/HaMNMuw65zo	Exploration of the abandoned store	Nov 23, 2021

Animatronics

Animatronic	Serial Number	Whereabouts
Chuck E. Cheese / Rolfe DeWolfe	10-82 1-33	Owned by a Private Collector
Pasqually / Dook Larue	10-82 2-33	Owned by a Private Collector
Mr. Munch / Fatz Geronimo	10-82 3-33	Owned by a Private Collector
Jasper T. Jowls / Beach Bear	10-82 4-33	Owned by a Private Collector
Helen Henny / Mitzi Mozzarella	10-82 5-33	Owned by a Private Collector
Billy Bob	10-82 6-33	Owned by a Private Collector
Pizzacam / Looney Bird	10-82 7-33	Owned by a Private Collector
Munch Jr. / Choo Choo	10-82 8-33	Owned by Connor Leschinsky
Building / Sun	10-82 10-33	Owned by a Private Collector
Moon	10-82 11-33	Owned by a YouTuber
Antioch	N/A	Unknown
Wink	N/A	Unknown