Commercial garage morphs into dream scene

Mary Paramore
HBL Associate Editor
11/20/09

The Garage at the Computer Market Place, is as popular with adults as it is with teens. Owner Scott Anderson said, "It's good to see kids and parents socializing together."

Picture your dream basement. A pool table, foosball and air hockey, for sure. Throw in Dance Revolution, Wii and Xbox gaming systems, definitely. Buy everything you need to jam on Rock Band and Guitar Hero, set up a mini-stage and add couches for the groupies… Oh yeah. How about a dance floor with colored lights and a disco ball, a dance floor that doubles as a seating area for a drop-down 92-inch high definition screen and projector system channeling every sport known to mankind? Nirvana.

This set up would put you back more than a few Benjamins, but what if I told you that, for only two or three of them, you can rent your dream basement for parties? And bring your own food and beverages. Yep, even those kinds of beverages.

Scott Anderson, owner of the Computer Market Place, has added a third business to his electronic free for all at 100-B Tollgate Road in Bel Air. Your dream basement, set up in an automotive bay he calls the Garage, is tucked behind National Budget Muffler, next to Jiffy Lube across from the Harford Mall. The addition complements Anderson’s two co-located businesses, the Computer Market Place and Gamenet, a computer gaming center.

“There has been very little for kids to do in Bel Air,” Anderson said when asked why he added two teen-targeted enterprises when his computer business has been voted the “Best of Harford County” by Harford Magazine’s readers’ poll for the past four years. As the father of two teens, Anderson knows what he is talking about when he said, “This is what kids like to do. I built the Garage for kids who aren’t into computer gaming.”

Anderson started the Computer Market Place at the Edgewood Flea Market after his job moved to California and he wasn’t willing to follow it. He said, “We went from the flea market to 4,000 sq. ft. of retail space in six years. We custom build our computers and notebooks, and beat any other brands on the market. Our service is half what others in town charge.”

Anderson said Computer Market Place computers are superior to more well-known and popular brands because of the high quality parts used to build them, and the local service technicians who stand behind their warranties. The business also sells peripherals and offers virus and spy ware detection and removal, onsite and off-site computer repair and data recovery.

The Computer Market Place initially was located in 1,200 sq. ft. a block down the road, within a stone’s throw of the town line. It was there that Anderson added computer gaming to his business. He said, “It was a small space and we’d redo the whole store to accommodate the gamers every Saturday night.”

Anderson said PC gamers are a mostly male, mostly teen and young adult demographic that play games like World of Warcraft, Team Fortress, Counter Strike, Call of Duty and Combat Arms with other gamers who are in the same room, or across the world. The Gamenet room also features table games, Wii and Xbox. Demand led Anderson to make the move to a larger space when his lease was up.

At the new location, gamers can bring their own computers or play on gaming systems Anderson rents for an hourly fee. He said, “Kids in our day had our cars. Kids today like to show off their computers.”

Both the Garage and Gamenet are available for private parties. He noted, “Our parties are really taking off. What I’m seeing is parents come to drop kids off for a party and they end up staying. It’s good to see kids and parents socializing together. Adults are booking for football parties and I plan to push NASCAR next year.”

When a party is not scheduled (bookings can be checked at the company’s Web site), each room is open on Friday and Saturday nights for teens only. This rule is especially strict in the Garage.

“We cater to 14-20, no adults allowed,” he said, noting that while adults are on the premises, kids are permitted to come and go. “I’m not a babysitting service. It’s up to the parent to decide if their kids are mature enough to drop off.”

The move to the new location, barely but firmly within town limits, required Anderson to seek approval for amusement center zoning from the Town Council. Anderson said, “They asked a lot of questions. They wanted things for kids to do here.”