SAN JOSE — A former bank branch in San Jose might become the location of a new escape room that would be a unique venue in this section of the Bay Area’s largest city, public documents show.
The escape room is being considered at a one-time Wells Fargo branch in north San Jose, according to a proposal on file with the city’s Planning Department.
The site of the proposed development is at 1705 North First Street, the planning documents show.
“We want to open an escape room business” in the former bank branch building, stated the proposal filed by the applicant, which operates as Escape Entertainment LLC. The LLC shares the same location as an Omescape game room in Sunnyvale.
A check of the escape room company’s website shows Escape Entertainment operates Omescape rooms in San Jose, Sunnyvale, New York City and Toronto in Canada.
Each of the Omescape sites contains several game rooms with varying difficulty levels.
The existing San Jose site on Wool Creek Drive offers players a chance to escape from a kingdom of cats, a dangerous museum, an insane asylum, a virus laboratory and a sorcerer’s keep.
The escape room being planned for North First Street in San Jose would total 6,000 square feet, the planning records show.
The proposed north San Jose venue would contain separate rooms for five different games, a setup that’s similar to the other escape room sites the company operates. The North First Street site would also have a main lobby and a break room.
The games within the existing venues operated by Escape Entertainment also can accommodate groups of different sizes.
At the existing San Jose site, one game room is designed for two to six players. Two of the games are designed for as many as 10 players. The games at the current San Jose venue have a 60-minute time limit, according to the company’s website.
The proposal is in a very preliminary stage of the city planning and review process. Preliminary applications are often filed as a way to gauge the views of San Jose planners about a proposed endeavor or development.
The time frame for opening the new escape room wasn’t immediately clear.
The bank branch property is owned by a family trust whose trustee is Barbara Bressanello, according to a Santa Clara County property database. The family trust is located in the San Diego County city of Carlsbad.
“Escape rooms are immersive, real-life games where players solve puzzles and riddles within a set time limit to achieve a specific goal,” Escape Entertainment stated in a proposal summary it filed with city planners. “It’s an indoor entertainment activity. We plan to build five games.”