Named for a popular Chinese pop song, the lounge will feature seven billiards tables and a series of nine small rooms around the perimeter.

Four rooms will be devoted to mahjong – a traditional Chinese table game similar to Texas Hold ‘em poker without the poker chips – and five small rooms will be available for group karaoke, Chen said.

Chen, who also is CEO and general manager of Triple-T LLC said he thinks demand for the lounge is fairly high, particularly among Chinese MSU students.

“We have a potential market for locals,” Chen said. “(The lounge) is in the center of (town). It will be much easier for students to walk here.”

The space does not have a license to serve food or liquor, but it will offer food delivery options and soft drinks until it can obtain a license to serve food, Chen said. The location will operate from 3 p.m. to 3 a.m. on weekends, and from 5 p.m. until the last customer le on weeknights, he said.

The idea of the lounge first was brought up by Chen among his friends in February 2011 and then developed through a series of weekly meetings between the group.

Those meetings soon led to a full financial analysis and market report by an outside firm to determine the business’s feasibility, and in June, the team secured about $200,000 in funding from a team of four outside investors to rent the business space, he said.

After several months of construction dating back to after the group secured the space in June, the lounge now nearly is complete, with each of the billiards tables and about five couches in position in the center of the lounge.

Earth science sophomore Ryan Logan said it’s tough to judge how students might respond to the opening of the new lounge.

“I’m not sure (if I would go there or if other students would go there),” he said. “I don’t really do that kind of stuff much.”

The opening of the new billiards lounge most likely won’t affect business at The UCue Billiards Lounge at the Union, said Kat Cooper, communication manager for Auxiliary Resources, the department that manages the building.

“The billiards room is a service the (Union) has provided for decades,” she said. “Off-campus (business) is always going to be able to provide a different set of services than on-campus. I think there’s room for all of us in that area.”

No-preference freshman Chuhao Yan — who was playing billiards at the Union on Wednesday afternoon with a group of friends — said he still would be likely to go to Heart Beats instead of the Union.

“I’d like to go there because the facility (could) be better than here,” he said.