Could Topgolf ever come to Fresno?
If it’s up to Fresno City Council President Annalisa Perea, the city needs to make it a priority to bring the popular driving range venue to town.
The big picture: Perea voiced her support for Topgolf during the city’s budget hearings on Tuesday, capping the presentation from the Economic Development Department.
- “I still would love a Top Golf in the city,” Perea told Economic Development Director Lance Lippincott. “WHatever we can do to get a Topgolf in the City of Fresno, let’s do it.”
State of play: Topgolf flips the idea of a traditional driving range on its head. While it has a typical driving range layout – albeit with raised teeboxes –Topgolf has bars, restaurants, different games such as aiming for certain targets on the range and is open past midnight.
- Topgolf only has five locations throughout California. Three of them are in the Los Angeles area, one in Roseville and the closest location to Fresno is in San Jose.
What we’re watching: Along with the Topgolf discussion, the budget presentation for the Economic Development Department also revealed a new business incentive program that Mayor Jerry Dyer is hoping to implement.
- The program would provide $500,000 to help with business attraction and retention strategies to not only help businesses stay where they are currently located throughout the city, but also to help attract businesses to areas such as the Tower District and downtown.
- Dyer told the council that the city has not built out the program yet and plans to meet with each councilmember to receive input.
- A large part of the program, Dyer said will be to drive business to vacant buildings that currently attract the homeless and may be at-risk to fires because of that.
- “If there’s an opportunity for us to attract a business to that vacant building and incentivize it financially, I think that’s a win-win for all of us,” Dyer said.
