FOOTHILL RANCH : Entertainment Center for Teens Planned

Trying to tap the market of young folks who say there are few places for teen-agers to have supervised fun in South County, a statewide firm has unveiled plans for a large-scale entertainment park here.

The park will be on a six-acre site in the Foothill Ranch Towne Centre and will feature high-tech rides, miniature golf and several other attractions.

“We had been looking for an ideal expansion site in south Orange County,” said Gerald B. Johnson, general partner of Camelot Park Family Entertainment Centers.

“Foothill Ranch was the perfect choice . . . because it’s a high-growth residential and business area.”

The entertainment center will be called the Palace Park of Foothill Ranch.

In addition to an arcade filled with high-tech games, the park will have three 18-hole miniature golf courses, a Grand Prix-type miniature race course, a bumper boat pond, batting cages and a theme castle.

The arcade will be inside the castle and will feature virtual-reality games and a laser tag arena.

Camelot Park officials hope to open the park by early summer in 1995.

The entertainment firm will join several other major tenants in the 163-acre shopping complex being developed by the Foothill Ranch Co., including Wal-Mart, Target, Mervyn’s and HomeBase.

The developer, which also built the surrounding Foothill Ranch community, said the shopping center is the largest of its kind in the country.