Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Topgolf to Open by "End of the Year"

Topgolf will be here sooner rather than later.  Topgolf President Todd Waldo announced the good news at the ground-breaking ceremony for the Prado Vista project Monday.  

 


The good times were indeed rolling at the site on northeast corner of the intersection of Sunnybrook Road and Colony Park Boulevard as politicians, chamber of commerce types, and various hangers-on celebrated the start of construction.  

Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann said the influx of new economic development projects was nice but people "need a place to play here" as he lauded Topgolf.

 

Ridgeland Mayor Gene McGee praised Mr. Prado as he said Prado Vista "will be a showcase of development in Mississippi."  

Topgolf President Todd Waldo (16:10) said the Topgolf facility will be two stories with 60 climate-controlled hitting bays, a full-service restaurant and bar, an outdoor patio, and mini-golf. "Our goal is to open this venue by the end of the year," said Mr. Waldo.  

"Mississippi deserves the best," said Gabriel Prado, CEO of Pracon.   PraCon Global Investment Group is the developer for the project. 


Apologies for the poor quality of the audio.  It was very windy during the ceremony. 

 

Of course, one can't have a ground-breaking ceremony without well, breaking ground.

 


 The 77-acre Prado Vista will be a mixed-use development composed of a Topgolf venue (p.37), a grocery store, and two hotels.  The Topgolf venue will be between 40,000 and 100,000 square feet.  The petition states:

    MUD Entertainment Venue as defined herein: A forty thousand (40,000) to one hundred thousand (100,000) square feet free-standing restaurant with a commercial sports and recreational element retail/restaurant entertainment venue building that includes retail and/or restaurant and other entertainment such as bowling entertainment element, bar, ping pong table element, game rooms for video and arcade games, and pool table element, bocce ball/cornhole/horseshoe game element. 

The grocery store will be between 20,000 and 150,000 square feet. The maximum height for the hotels will be limited to four stories so as not to block the view of the Cspire and Lord Snow buildings.  The project will include a music venue as well (#24 on p.37).  Other proposed tenants will be a craft brewery, furniture store, distillery, civic building, and unspecified other buildings.  Prado Vista will include owner-occupied condos and townhomes.  

However, rentals might be allowed.  The petition states (#8 on p.39):

    All dwellings and residences constructed and/or located on the property subject to these protective covenants shall be for owner occupancy, except as specifically permitted herein. Further, except as specifically permitted herein, the lease or rental of a dwelling or residence for any purposes, whether verbal or in writing, is expressly prohibited under these protective covenants. The only circumstance or situation in which a lease or rental shall be permitted is when the dwelling or residence is of new construction and in which either:

        A period of at least (1) year has elapsed from and after the building permit for that particular dwelling has been issued, or;
        A period of at least six (6) months has elapsed from and after the final inspection by the appropriate public building inspector has occurred, and the certificate of occupancy has been issued, whichever period of time is longer.

    The above rental provisions are for the original builder/owner that obtained the original building permit. With any other owner the wait period is double the above noted wait periods, therefore being two (2) years after the building permit has been issued and/or one (1) year after the new owner


Kingfish note: Of course, we just could not resist including this video in the post. 

40 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congrats to Gabriel Prado. I had my doubts this would get off the ground. I’ve played TopGolf at other cities, it’s a lot of fun.

You know, Gabriel was Phil Fishers economic development guy. Since he was Phil’s guy, the aldermen (lady) ran him off. Turns out he’s a pretty good economic developer.

Anonymous said...

The development sounds exciting. Will the grocery store be Trader Joe's?

Anonymous said...

You say it's a lot of fun. For those of us who've seen or heard of one, what's there to do?

Anonymous said...

If I only want to play ping pong do I still have to show up wearing lots of trendy golf-logo attire?

I've noticed I never see anybody in blue-jeans and no-collar shirts on a putting green when I pass by on the highway and blow. This is going to be quite a haughty bunch, fer shure.

Not much chance of drawing the Jackson Sports-Bar crowd.

Anonymous said...

Looks horrible and tacky, just like the clientele it will attract.

Secret Shopper said...

"Will the grocery store be Trader Joe's?"

Of course not! Mississippi is one of only 8 states without one. Here are the reasons we don't have them, and this development won't include one:

1. Trader Joe's stores all sell wine in the same aisles as groceries. (over 3-5% alcohol)

2. Trader Joe's does not allow customers to snack on grapes, apples and carrots as you ride along on the motorized carts.

Anonymous said...

@6:25
Trader Joe’s has made it more than clear that they will not open in Mississippi due to liquor laws
I live in NE Jackson but often on weekends I go to my condo at 30A and enjoy the Trader Joe’s down from that one. However Trader Joe’s needs to sell alcohol to survive they say.

Anonymous said...

Open by the "end of the year"? Rather ambitious I think. Mid year 2025.

Anonymous said...

Places like Top Golf will take a lot of the time and trouble out of golfing and save everyone big money.

No grass to mow and water, no more cleaning the stray cat poop out of the sand traps.

No drunk golfers hooning their carts off the paths and across the greens.

No more golfers or locals taking their stealth dumps under the pine trees in the rough. No one wants that stuff in their golf spikes!

No real estate taxes to pay for a long time because 'ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT!'.

Anonymous said...

Great economic development for Ridgeland and Madison County! More jobs, more opportunities for people willing to work and even more taxes for you left wingers who think taxes are always the priority to pay for y’all’s free shit! Keep the momentum going!

Northeast Jackson's Smartest Man said...

I don't always go to my condo, but when I do, I stop by Trader Joes before I go to 30A to get shit faced.

Anonymous said...

Old McRaes on meadowbrook just a slab?

Anonymous said...

Thank you, 8:27! What about the slab? I had (and still have) my doubts on Prado, but if he pulls it off, good for him.

Anonymous said...

I am excited. More entertainment venues are needed to help attract and keep younger people.

Anonymous said...

@ 8:27 We cant be having any of that Fondren/Woodland Hills gentrification spreading any further north.

Anonymous said...

Open by the end of the year? Starting in March? That’s a feat I would love to see. What subcontractor is foolish enough to sign a contract with those time constraints?

Anonymous said...

Don't places like this get built with the same tilt up precast concrete panels they use on warehouses?

Shouldn't take too long.

Anonymous said...

Should be at least as much fun as getting drunk and whacking the daylights out of little balls all over the course.

Actually will be more fun because you will have lots of blasted people in a small space watching each other shank shot after shot and trash talking each other.

If there are problems with patorns beefing the security can just tell them to take their trouble out to the parking lot!


Anonymous said...

Two things. Yes. The grocery store will be definitely be a Trader Joe’s. I’ve talked to the developers. Second - @8:57 - if you really want to attract and keep younger people in Mississippi, a Top Golf is not going to do that. Dig a little deeper. Stop electing right wing statewide politicians who are racist. Who are anti LGBT. Men who think they know better than women on what they can or can’t do with their bodies. Tate can give away all the corporate welfare/tax funding he wants to companies - until this state stops with all the hate, bigotry, and government control of people’s bodies, young people won’t come here and they will continue to leave in droves.

Anonymous said...

My golf ball; my choice.

Anonymous said...

where is there a trader joe’s on 30-A? tallahassee? birmingham? new orleans?

Anonymous said...

9:49, only a left wing nut job like yourself could tie a story on a Top Golf opening and future economic development to abortion rights. If you don’t like it here, please move to another state, preferably far, far away!

Anonymous said...

Attn 9:49 AM Thanks for pointing out the various reasons Madison, the city, is one of the two best cities to live in, in the state of Mississippi. The other being Ocean Springs.

Kingfish said...

Should've known. We get something nice and here come the Crotches to trash it.

Anonymous said...

10:01 AM/10:12 AM - Were you two born without humor genes? So sad.

Anonymous said...

KF, couldn't agree more. Something positive finally happening and you'd think someone pissed in their cornflakes.

I'm excited for Top Golf. Whether you golf or not, it is fun. It is also a place to have fun team building meetings, watch the game, or hang out with the family. If you have never been to one, you are missing out. Even my wife who has never touched a golf club in her life had a blast.

Anonymous said...

I've never been to one but I am looking forward to it.
Everyone I know who has been has said great things about Top Golf.

I think this is exciting and pretty cool!

Anonymous said...

And the people bitching about it will never step foot in the door once, much less twice. The reason we can't have nice things around here is 1) people are always bitching about anything new and never happy or excited about what we have coming and 2) we don't have enough people that will patronize it enough to keep it open. I would love to be wrong, but people in the Metro just don't spend money on food and entertainment like a lot of bigger cities. We simply don't have the numbers that go often enough to keep them open.

Anonymous said...

Nice addition for the Metro, Topgolf has to scale and for the most part that has to be in secondary and tertiary markets. Callaway has simplified the model down to help make it feasible. Colby will develop and lease to Topgolf. Prado sold them a piece of dirt in his Vista and hopes the rest of the players come on board, majority of the residential is swamp land. Surprised Kerioth or Mattiace let this one slide.

Anonymous said...

@12:06, “people are always bitching about anything new”. You mean like the Urban Air Adventure park on County Line Rd, across the street from Ridgeland that had a fight and shooting in the parking lot in its first week? Top Golf Memphis had a fight and shooting within its first 2 weeks of opening. Same clientele same demographics for Memphis and Jackson. No theatres in Jackson so they come to Renaissance or Madison for a movie. Please stay in Fondren, I promise I will stay away. I don’t need the egg and olive sandwiches from Brent’s. Cultivation Food Hall at The District apparently didn’t get support from those elite NE Jackson folks either.

Anonymous said...

The newspaper in Austin publishes a monthly report of the top establishments in liquor sales. Top Golf leads the list and there are a lot of places to buy a drink in Austin. Hope it does well.

Anonymous said...

Good Lord 8:22am, where do you play golf. Been playing 42 of my 47 years and have never once seen someone crap on the course.

We don't wear spikes anymore either.

Anonymous said...

I'm surprised this project slid by Gene Magee without an indoor bike trail and spandex-leotard shop.

Anonymous said...

@9:43, the Ridgeland MOB at Colony Crossing is hitting the 14 month mark and it was a Tilt-Wall design. The weather had a huge factor at the beginning even though we had very little rain this past summer. All it takes is a few weeks of bad weather an unforgiving owner/developer then you’re ass is grass. The sub came in and stood the 40 panels in 2.5 days but…the interior of the structure has to be finished after the walls are stood. This presents a whole different issue with subs trying to get materials on different floors or levels and it’s a challenge. Those are good for warehouses, not so for something like this, but, I’m not involved with this so…. @8:22, you must be confusing golfers with deer hunters, but when you gotta go…you gotta go. I always wondered why courses didn’t have comfort stations. Some of us old fellers would appreciate that.

Anonymous said...

"Looks horrible and tacky, just like the clientele it will attract."
February 28, 2024 at 7:35 AM

Agreed! And congratulations, on having one of the few real posts, in this sea of posts by PAID SHILLS. I'm not sure where those shills reside, but their bad syntax/punctuation/grammar, is not recognizable as being Mississippian.

Then, there are the posts with a very recognizable bullying tone. I remember that tone from previous stories about 'Top Golf'.

Anonymous said...

What about top golf’s competition that bought land north of Madison on I 55? When are they opening?

Anonymous said...

I look forward to something different and hope it does well. That was the strangest ground breaking I have ever seen. Can’t understanding having the dirt in boxes.

Anonymous said...

I don't believe the math makes sense. Much like the Prado Lofts, which I don't believe will ever be built, but garnered lots of attention. Anyone who puts Harvard in their bio but didn't attend Harvard is not someone to be believed. What's the source of equity? What are the terms of the debt? Why, if the city is contributing, are these facts not required to be presented?

Anonymous said...

@11:39 He is taking the credit as if he will own and develop TopGolf, all they did is buy their respective piece of land from him in Prado Vista and in turn hoping it increases the rest of his land value. Trader Joe's is out for the reasons said above.

@8:35 Strange indeed.

Anonymous said...

Wasn’t there an issue with it serving alcohol that close to a school? I mean it’s DIRECTLY across from RHS. Also, I think converting that water way into a “river walk” is gonna be easier said than done. Currently, it cuts through the very center of the entire property. Engineering, environmental agencies, FEMA flood, etc are a lot of fun to deal with.

And 2:28…Mildred W Carr, LLC still shows as property owner via Madison County Tax Assessor website. There could be a delay in the records…or maybe it’s a long term land lease? But yeah, theres a few things here that are kinda suss, including who’s actually financing this thing? Maybe it’s a real -“If you say you’re gonna build it, they will come” situation.

Regardless, progress is being made. The property is almost all cleared and moving some dirt in.


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