Uranus Fudge Factory gets OK for Richmond location

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — A Missouri fudge business and roadside attraction is set to expand into Richmond, Indiana, after the city’s Advisory Plan Commission gave the green light during a meeting Wednesday.

The plan is to open up a Uranus Fudge Factory candy store and attraction that would bring people into Richmond as it serves homemade fudge, cotton candy, ice cream and more.

It would be the third location for Uranus Fudge Factory and General Store. The original location opened in 2015 in Missouri. The other location is their candy manufacturing site in Anderson, Indiana, northeast of Indianapolis.

The store will be located on the site of a former church property on East National Road (US 40) and I-70. Once it’s opened, it would operate from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Store owner Louis Keen hopes to have the store up and running by the end of the year.

Keen, who calls himself “The Mayor of Uranus,” said the goal of the Richmond location is to create good jobs and have fun doing it.

“I want to make people laugh,” said Keen. “Right now, everything is so hard and everybody’s angry and everybody’s mad. And you can come to Uranus. I’m going to make you laugh.”

He said it’s pretty easy to make his business the butt of every joke.

“That’s what’s crazy about it,” he said. “Nine years we’ve been doing this, we still get new stuff every day.”

“The idea of bringing people off the highway to Richmond, Indiana is a good thing,” said Michael DeVine with the Richmond Advisory Planning Commission.

“We want people to pull over, spend some time exploring Uranus, laugh, and then go take pictures,” said Keen.

He said that the Missouri location had half a million visitors in 2023.

Keen said he has plans for further expansion of the Richmond property, including mini golf and possibly even gas pumps.

Even without gas pumps, Keen said Uranus Fudge Factory could rival another popular convenience store slated for the Miami Valley.

“Did you have Buc-ees in mind as you approached this?” asked Michael DeVine during the Richmond Advisory Planning Commission meeting.

“Buc-ee’s should worry about me!” he replied.

According to Keen, a Uranus Fudge store typically employs 50-60 people, but he expects the Richmond site to employ even more as it will be their biggest location yet at about 15,000 square feet.

The company also plans to relocate its warehouse and distribution center to Richmond.

“I don’t have a lot of money,” said Keen. “I’m just kind of like building this as I go along. Someday I will. So I just kind of have to earn the revenue to build it, but as soon as I make the money, I put it all right back in Uranus.”

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