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John’s Incredible Pizza Co., which in Tigard next week opens its first location outside of California, claims on its website that it serves up incredible food and incredible fun at its pizza parlors.

But as one local contractor discovered, building one of the company’s locations can be incredibly challenging.

S.D. Deacon has been working over the last five months to convert a 48,000-square-foot building that formerly housed a Circuit City and a BedMart into a pizza buffet fantasy land equipped with themed rooms, arcade games and even carnival rides. The contractor was tested by a tight time frame for a creative project of significant size.

“It’s definitely one of the most unique projects that we’ve ever worked on,” said Brian Sabom, a project manager with Portland-based S.D. Deacon, which has a construction portfolio ranging from parks to department stores. “But to see the transformation from the 2-D design on paper to the actual finished product has been incredible.”

The John’s Incredible Pizza concept of founder John Parlet began as a 16,000-square-foot pizza parlor in Victorville, Calif. A few years later, Parlet added a 26,000-square-foot location in Bakersfield, Calif., and a 50,000-square-foot location in Fresno, Calif.

With 10 locations in California, Parlet last year explored expansion opportunities and immediately was drawn to the Portland-metro area. Big-box space was particularly attractive, he said.

“We’ve always liked the market here in Portland, but building new didn’t make sense economically, aesthetically or environmentally, with all the empty space,” he said.

Not just one big box space would do, however. Parlet eventually decided to lease two vacant spaces separated by a wall and convert them into one new location roughly the size of a Fred Meyer or Safeway store.

The new John’s Incredible Pizza location is on Hall Boulevard, bordering Beaverton and Tigard, where Southwest Greenburg Road becomes Southwest Oleson Road.

Before starting work on the $3 million tenant improvement, S.D. Deacon worked with the landlord to remove the wall separating two spaces. The company then helped upgrade water lines, add additional amps for electricity and increase the capacity of the HVAC system.

The work for John’s Incredible Pizza was much more colorful. S.D. Deacon used 70 colors of paint, 15 wall coverings and between 50 and 60 types of lights.

“There are these crazy color schemes and outlandish finishes,” Sabom said. “When I heard we were building a pizza parlor I didn’t think of anything like this.

“It definitely doesn’t look like a pizza parlor.”

The paint and wall covering selections were extensive because the building includes themed dining rooms, in addition to a buffet area and a game/ride area. One dining room is sports themed and another resembles a log cabin.

Sabom added that framing for the project was far and away the most extensive performed by the company. This was mostly because of the support required for $7 million to $8 million worth of games and rides. The building holds more than 100 arcade games, a twister ride, bumper cars and even a swinging pirate ship.

S.D. Deacon finished the project in five months and one week, approximately seven weeks quicker than usual for a build-out to accommodate a John’s Incredible Pizza location.

A soft opening for the pizza parlor is planned for Tuesday. A grand opening celebration will take place March 29 from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m., with Beaverton Mayor Denny Doyle on hand for a ribbon-cutting ceremony and gifts for kids.