The Lakeland Escape Room is scheduled to have its soft opening in December.

LAKELAND — You’re part of a small group of people who have been locked in a room, and you have only 60 minutes to find a way out.

The key to your escape lies in working together to discover clues and solve puzzles. It may sound like a harrowing ordeal on paper, but the catch is you’ve happily signed up for this experience.

And thanks to a new business slated to make its debut by the end of this year, that experience will soon be available in downtown Lakeland.

The Lakeland Escape Room, 308 E. Pine St., is scheduled to have its soft opening in December.

Ana Gillespie — who co-owns the business with husband, Andrew — said “escape rooms” have become increasingly popular in the United States the last couple of years after successful runs in Asia, Australia and Europe.

“The mystery around them is a big part of it,” Gillespie said. The couple used Facebook on Friday to announce the impending arrival of the Lakeland Escape Room. “It’s amazing the amount of people who are excited and love that we’re doing this, but I’ve also got just as many people asking me what it is.”

As recently as earlier this year, Gillespie fell into the latter category.

She first encountered an escape room during a family trip to Charleston, S.C., during the spring.

“My two oldest kids were like, “Oh my god, an escape room!’” said Gillespie, who has two college-age daughters from a previous marriage and a 9-year-old son with Andrew. “I was completely ignorant to it and even when the owner came out and tried to explain it to me, I didn’t get it.

“You really just have to do one.”

The family got together once again to visit an escape room in Tampa this past summer. It was during the drive back that the Gillespies decided to bring the experience to Polk.

“When we were driving home, I said, ‘We can do this,’” said Gillespie, 46, a stay-at-home mom who previously worked in pharmaceutical sales. She was born in Colombia and raised in Lakeland. Andrew, 41, works as an engineer for Mosaic and is a native of Ireland who has lived in the city since after college. “And Lakeland needs this.”

Julie Townsend, executive director of the Lakeland Downtown Development Authority, said the city is always interested in finding attractions unique to the area.

“Lakeland Escape Room is the first of its kind and a welcome addition,” Townsend said. “It will add needed evening activity to the north side of downtown.”

Townsend cited the soon-to-be-completed NOBAY Village mixed-use development and the fact that Copper Tree Beads — a shop off Kentucky Avenue that recently had its grand opening — is currently offering night classes as signs that the north part of downtown is headed toward offering round-the-clock entertainment options.

“We hope to have a 24/7 downtown on both sides of the (train) track,” she said.

The Lakeland Escape Room will give visitors the chance to sign up for one of three escape rooms — the Asylum, the Cinema, or the Speakeasy — before they arrive on-site. Once there, each group is given a scenario describing what happened in the room. The puzzle-solving fun begins once the participants are locked in their rooms.

Gillespie said each room will hold a maximum of eight people. Though they haven’t settled on a final price, Gillespie noted that the escape rooms in Tampa and Orlando fall in the $28 to $32 per person range, so they are considering charging $25 per person.

She added that, even though the Asylum room contains an element of fear, the other two rooms are not scary at all and the Lakeland Escape Room represents a family-friendly outing.

“For the most part, we think that anyone 12 and over can handle the room,” said Gillespie, noting that her own 9-year-old son has participated in escape rooms. “If you’re younger than 12, you’re more than welcome to come with an adult, but some of the puzzles might be too challenging.”

For the time being, the Gillespies are asking anyone interested in the Lakeland Escape Room to visit their website — lakelandescaperoom.com — and sign up to receive updates via newsletter.

They are leasing the 2,900-square-foot space from Broadway Real Estate Services, and Jack Strollo — Broadway’s vice president — has been impressed by the couple’s preparation.

“They’ve got a good business plan and they’ve really done their homework,” Strollo said. “They had their announcement on Friday and they were already doing demo work on Saturday.”

Strollo said the couple originally looked at a few areas outside of downtown before settling on the Pine Street location.

“I think it’s a great fit and it brings another destination-themed property to downtown,” he said. “An entertainment venue like that is going to be huge.”

— John Ceballos can be reached at john.ceballos@theledger.com or 863-802-7515.