A Topgolf outdoor, multilevel golf driving range is planned for Tinley Park, part of a broader entertainment district envisioned for a 100-acre site near the Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre.
Topgolf would anchor the site, owned by the developers of the Odyssey Fun World center on Oak Park Avenue near Harlem Avenue and directly to the west of a CarMax dealership and east of the Brookside Marketplace shopping center at Harlem and 191st Street.
The village’s Plan Commission reviewed the proposals for the golfing center and the broader entertainment district last month, recommending the Tinley Park Village Board consider and possibly vote on plans at its Aug. 7 meeting.
The driving range would have 102 sheltered driving bays on three levels, with a restaurant, bar and meeting space, according to plans. It would be open throughout the year, and a Topgolf representative said heaters would keep temperatures during a Chicago winter at about 60 degrees inside the driving range structure.
“I think this will be great for the community,” Plan Commission member Amanda Martinez said at the meeting.
Garrett Gray, commission chairman, also welcomed the development and said “hopefully it will energize the site.”
Commission staff described the property as “sort of a blank slate,” and that the “goal of the development is to create a unified and interconnected entertainment district.”
Specific uses other than Topgolf have not yet been identified, but developers envision development including restaurants and possibly a hotel.
Village planners said Topgolf could be a catalyst for other entertainment-oriented uses, and even zoning codes that would apply to the site do not permit businesses such as banks, medical offices and even currency exchanges and funeral homes.
Not all of the land can easily be developed due to floodplain issues, but the 13 acres Topgolf plans to build on are not affected by water issues, according to plans filed with the village.
Much of the site consists of fallow farmland, and Topgolf would hug the curve where Prosperi Drive was extended, then follows south to 191st Street. Some of the property was used for Odyssey Fun Farm, which included Wizard of Oz-themed attractions and a corn maze.
The Topgolf property would have frontage along the Interstate-80/Harlem Avenue interchange, have parking for 476 vehicles, and tall nets at the far edge of the driving range, reaching 170 feet high in spots, to corral any golf shots.
The three-story enclosed structure would be more than 22,000 square feet, and 52 feet tall, according to plans.
Anthony DeAngelis, the petitioner for the site, told village planners “we’re really excited to have Topgolf. We think it’s a perfect fit, a perfect anchor to kind of restart the process out there with the original vision we had for I-80 World.”
The petition was filed on behalf of Patricia Halikias, and both DeAngelis and Halikias are executives with Inter-Continental Real Estate & Development Corp.
The property was annexed to Tinley Park in 1996, and plans at that time included the CarMax as well as a Cinemark theater.
A broader development was dubbed “I-80 World,” with the village’s outdoor music venue, then called the World Music Theater, meant to spark more development nearby.
In the planning and development of the new entertainment district, the developer is agreeing to reimburse Tinley Park for all professional services as well as village staff fees and other costs incurred through the project’s competion, according to plans.
Topgolf would operate from 9 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday, and 9 a.m. to 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, according to the petition.
In the Chicago suburbs, Topgolf has locations in Naperville and Schaumburg, and the Naperville site has been the location of 20 firearm-related arrests so far this year.
While the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning projects traffic volumes around the development to increase in the coming years, a traffic consultant hired by the developer noted in a report to the village that Topgolf won’t overwhelm the existing road system.
The broader entertainment district plan proposes two streets running through the site to the south of Topgolf, and as other lots are sold and developed the village wants to see a centralized parking area.
mnolan@southtownstar.com
