A multi-level outdoor golf course from Topgolf is planned for Tinley Park, part of a larger entertainment district envisioned for a 100-acre site near Credit Union 1 Amphitheater.
Topgolf is set to anchor the site, owned by the developers of Odyssey Fun World on Oak Park Avenue near Harlem Street and just steps west of the CarMax dealership and east of Harlem's Brookside Marketplace and 191st Street.
The Village Plan Commission reviewed proposals for the golf center and broader recreation area last month, and recommended that the Tinley Park Village Council consider the plans and possibly vote on them at its 6:30 p.m. meeting Tuesday at Village Hall, 16250 S. Oak Park Ave., Tinley Park.
The plans call for the golf course to feature 102 covered driving ranges on three levels, along with a restaurant, bar and meeting space. It will be open year-round, and a Topgolf representative said that heating will keep temperatures inside the golf course structure during Chicago winters at around 60 degrees.
“I think this will be good for the community,” Planning Commission member Amanda Martinez said at the meeting.
Committee Chairman Garrett Gray also welcomed the development, saying, “We hope this will revitalize the site.”
Commission staff described the property as “a kind of blank slate,” and that “the goal of the development is to create a unified, interconnected entertainment district.”
No specific uses other than Topgolf have been determined yet, but developers envision the development will include restaurants and possibly a hotel.
Village planners said Topgolf could be a catalyst for other recreational-oriented uses, and even the zoning rules that apply to the site do not allow businesses such as banks, medical offices, and even money exchanges and funeral homes.
Tinley Park Village
A rendering of an outdoor golf course planned for Tinley Park Village. (Tinley Park Village)
Not all of the land can be easily developed because of floodplain issues, but the 13 acres that Topgolf plans to build on are not affected by water issues, according to plans submitted to the village.
Much of the site consisted of fallow farmland, and the Topgolf course hugged the curve where Prosperi Drive ran, then followed it south to 191st Street. Part of the property was used for the Odyssey Fun Farm, which included Wizard of Oz-themed attractions and a corn maze.
The Topgolf property will have frontage along the Interstate 80/Harlem Avenue intersection, have parking for 476 vehicles and tall nets on the far edge of the golf course, reaching 170 feet in some spots, to collect any golf shots.
According to the plans, the three-story enclosed building will be more than 22,000 square feet and 52 feet tall.
“We’re really excited to have Topgolf,” Anthony DeAngelis, the site’s petitioner, told village planners. “We think it’s a perfect fit, a perfect anchor to restart the process there with the original vision we had for I-80 World.”
The petition was filed on behalf of Patricia Halikias, both of whom DeAngelis and Halikias are executives at InterContinental Real Estate and Development.
The property was annexed to Tinley Park in 1996, and plans at the time included a CarMax as well as a Cinemark theater.
The larger development was called “I-80 World”, and the village's outdoor music theater, then called the World Music Theater, was supposed to spark further development nearby.
In planning and developing the new recreation area, the developer has agreed to reimburse Tinley Park for all professional services as well as village staff fees and other costs incurred until the project is completed, according to the plans.
Tinley Park Village
Night view of the proposed Topgolf outdoor golf course in Tinley Park. (Tinley Park Village)
According to the petition, Top Golf will operate from 9 a.m. to midnight from Sunday to Thursday, and from 9 a.m. to 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.
In the Chicago suburbs, Topgolf has locations in Naperville and Schaumburg, and the Naperville location has been the site of 20 gun-related arrests so far this year.
Since last year, more than two dozen people have been arrested on gun charges after police noticed weapons inside their cars in the parking lot of the Naperville facility, according to a report in the Naperville Sun, a Chicago Tribune-affiliated publication.
No firearms were fired at the property, and the charges stem from foot police patrols spotting weapons inside parked vehicles, according to The Sun.
Their check of police and other records showed that none of the people named lived in Naperville, and showed addresses in Chicago as well as Blue Island, Calumet City and Hazel Crest, or lived in communities in northwest Indiana, according to the publication, which noted there was no similar pattern of reported gun-related incidents at the Topgolf facility in Schaumburg.
Headquartered in Dallas, Topgolf is a unit of Topgolf Callaway Brands Corp. of Carlsbad, California.
Topgolf has more than 100 locations worldwide, including more than 80 locations in the United States and international locations in countries such as Australia, Germany, Mexico and Spain.
In the first quarter of this year, Topgolf Callaway reported revenue of $1.14 billion, down 2% from the previous quarter, and Topgolf unit net revenue of nearly $423 million, up about 5% from the same period the year before.
While the Chicago Metropolitan Planning Agency expects increased traffic volumes around the development in the coming years, a traffic consultant hired by the developer said in a report that Topgolf would not overwhelm the existing road system in Tinley Park surrounding the property.
The wider recreation area plan proposes two streets running through the site to the south of Topgolf, and as other plots are sold and developed, the village would like to see a central parking lot.
manolan@southtownstar.com
Originally published: August 1, 2024 at 11:16 AM
