Chuck E. Cheese will make its return to Medford after a nearly three-decade absence.

The popular pizza parlor and children’s birthday party destination is slated to open by summer 2024, company officials confirmed Tuesday. They say they’re working through the permitting process with the city of Medford and hope to begin construction by February.

The plans call for renovating two spaces inside the WinCo shopping center on Barnett Road inside a pair of storefronts previously occupied by Payless ShoeSource and Village Books.

Village Books owners announced May 27 that they were relocating to 2382 W. Main St. A social media post by bookstore owners reported that the store had lost its lease because of “an incoming Chuck E. Cheese.”

Known for a giant rat mascot — his name is Chuck Entertainment Cheese — with a New York accent, Chuck E. Cheese restaurants were a hit in the 1980s and ’90s for family dinners and birthday parties hosted with pizza, cake, music and games.

In Medford, a Chuck E. Cheese was located inside the current Phagan’s Medford Beauty School off Poplar Drive.

The old location gave kids a place to eat pizza and cake, win tickets from arcade-style games and have dance parties with gigantic animatronic characters themed after Chuck E. and his band of critter pals in Munch’s Make Believe Band.

The chain disbanded its animatronic characters in 2017 citing higher expectations by today’s youths than those of the 1980s. The dancing critters had been a feature in store locations since the first Chuck E. Cheese opened in San Jose, California, in 1977.

Instead of the giant characters with flapping mechanical arms, modern store locations feature hourly “Live!” sessions with an interactive dance floor, arcade and kid-focused game. The company boasts over 460 locations in the U.S. with more than 70 stores in California alone.