Peoria, IL is a community that has been passed up by multiple big name Golf Entertainment venues over the years due to its size. While the nearly 400,000 residents in the metropolitan area can certainly sustain the business plans of these organizations, there are a significant number of larger communities throughout the country that are not served that are more attractive from a business stand-point. The Peoria Park District (PPD), a public entity, came up with a creative solution to this problem. They decided to use an under-utilized building and driving range to create its own Golf Entertainment Facility. They started by hiring DKA because due to our unmatched national Golf Entertainment Facility design expertise.
DKA worked with PPD on a space program that would match the district’s budget and rough business plan. It became apparent after completing the programming phase, that the district would need to hire a private operator to run the restaurant and bar components of the new facility. The district then spent about six months soliciting local restaurants and bars to find the operator who was the right fit.
Following the successful search for an operator, DKA worked hand-in-hand with both the district and the operator to design two separate structures composing the proposed Golf Entertainment Facility. An existing golf learning center was used to house the entry to the facility, bar/restaurant, private event space, and full-service kitchen, while a separate and detached structure was designed to accommodate 10 golfing/lounging bays on the first level and 11 golfing/lounging bays on the second level. Since the facility is built on an existing golf learning center site, the driving range was already appointed in such a manner that extensive and expensive netting was not required.
The new Golf Entertainment Facility includes the following programmatic elements:
| Location | Peoria, Illinois |
| Size | 13,500 sf |
| Completed | 2025 |
