Topgolf plans to build its first Wisconsin driving range and golf entertainment center in Monona, along the Beltline between WPS Health Solutions and South Towne Mall.
Dallas-based Topgolf, which has 90 golf complexes in 36 states and 10 in other countries, has proposed a $30 million project that would replace five buildings on the western end of the WPS campus and in a neighboring office park.
“We feel that we have found the right spot,” Todd Waldo, the company’s real estate development director, told the city plan commission last month at an initial meeting about the proposal.
Dallas-based Topgolf has proposed a driving range and golf entertainment center in Monona between South Towne Mall and WPS Health Solutions.
“We have nowhere in Monona that is better set up for this kind of traffic than this spot,” said Chris Homburg, a member of the plan commission, which raised questions about lighting, signs and green space but seemed supportive of the proposal.
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Waldo said the company has been looking at potential Wisconsin locations for five or six years. Topgolf has two centers in the Chicago suburbs and one near Minneapolis. One is expected to open in September in West Des Moines, Iowa.
PinSeekers, a similar golf entertainment complex, opened last year in DeForest along Interstate 39-90-94.
The 16-acre Topgolf project, at 5600 Gisholt Drive, at the corner of Gisholt Drive and Engel Street, would include 11.5 acres for the golf complex. The 36,000-square-foot, two-story building would have 72 golf ball hitting bays usable all year, a restaurant and bar, event space and an outdoor patio.
Netting, supported by poles up to 156 feet high, would surround the driving range. Outdoor miniature golf might eventually be added, Waldo said.
The northern 5.5 acres of the site would be for future development, said Steve Doran, of Galway Companies and SWD Management, the Monona developer behind the project. The company owns Floor and Décor and Pet Supplies Plus to the west in South Towne Mall.
One of the buildings in the South Towne Office Park that would be demolished to make way for a Topgolf driving range.
The Topgolf complex, which would include 350 surface parking spots, would draw about 250,000 visitors a year, including up to 1,000 customers per day on weekends, according to plans filed with the city. It would create about 300 jobs, roughly 50 of them full time.
WPS, an insurance company, has been consolidating its facilities and renovating its main corporate office as many employees have been working remotely since the COVID-19 pandemic, spokesperson DeAnne Boegli said.
WPS plans to encourage more employees to work on-site in the renovated building, expected to be ready in November. The Topgolf project would be a draw, she said. “We think this will enhance our employees’ experience,” Boegli said.
Tax incremental financing is likely to be requested, the city said. Pending city review and approval, Topgolf plans to begin construction next year and open in 2026, Waldo said.
He said more than half of Topgolf’s customers aren’t regular golfers. A goal of the company is “breaking down the barriers of entry to golf.”
