A Big Shots Golf franchise with a 30-bay driving range is going in at 3456 U.S. 1, having passed muster with the City of Vero Beach Planning and Zoning Board, which approved the site plan last week.
The project includes a 7,000-square-foot, two-story building that will contain a restaurant, lounge and walk-up ice cream window. The entire back of the building – 10,000 square feet of roofed-over space – is a “driving-range concourse area,” according to the plans.
Dr. Bill Mallon and General Manager Bobby Bird.
The eight-acre site and franchise are owned by Dr. William Mallon, an ophthalmologist and owner of Advanced Eye Care, which shares a lot line with the project.
A life-long golfer with a plus-five handicap, Mallon has eyed the site for years. “It was a driving range until 2004, when it closed after the hurricane. I wanted to do a driving range and more. I wanted food and ice cream and putt-putt golf.” Mallon said. “I’ve been trying to buy the land every year since it closed. I finally acquired it last August.”
“In the back of my mind,” Mallon continued, lingered a Bryant Gumbel “Real Sports” episode from years ago that featured a Top Golf franchise project in Austin. “It was a monstrosity. Too big for what I intended, but I thought it was the coolest thing ever.”
Site Location of Big Shot Golf
Mallon learned of Big Shots Golf, a similar but smaller franchise which uses “better technology” to track golf balls. Top Golf uses a radio frequency in the golf ball which Mallon said “doesn’t feel like a real golf ball – they’re “clicky” – which makes a difference for a real gamer. Big Shots uses FlightScope, a launch monitor, which operates on the same principle as Doppler radar.
“Real golfers love it. You can have a real golf lesson,” Mallon said. “Lots of pros have expressed interest in giving lessons. We’ll have leagues, including an after-school league. There’s not a lot of public golf in the area. And there are a lot of people who have private-golf memberships who want somewhere to go to hit balls after it gets dark. “
The covered outdoor driving range will be climate-controlled. “We could be open every day of the year, even if it’s raining. We think some of our biggest days will be Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Mallon said.
Bobby Bird, a long-time friend of Mallon’s and well known as the owner of Golf Roundup, the largest retail golf store on the Treasure Coast for 22 years, will be the general manager. Bird sold Golf Roundup and downsized, opening Birdie’s Golf and Lacrosse for two years, recently divesting it, too. “He sold Birdie’s to be a part of this,” Mallon said.
Dr. Bill Mallon and General Manager Bobby Bird.
Along the highway frontage will be an 89-space parking lot. The two-story building will be about 35 feet high, with half the driving ranges on the second floor, about 12 feet above ground.
“There will be nine artificial turf greens that you can hit to,” Bird said. “The farther the green, the better the score. The driving range will be 300 yards deep and 130 yards wide. The farthest green is at 225 yards.”
The franchise’s gaming package includes simulated golf. Each bay will have two big-screen TVs, one displaying the game being played and another on a sports channel of choice.
“All the bays could be filled with competitors playing the same 18-hole golf course,” Mallon said. “And it will only take two hours, not six, and you can have a meal with your kids while you’re playing. And it doesn’t matter what their skill level is. A child can play and won’t hold up the other golfers. Times are different. Gone are the days when a father spends the day away from their kids at the golf course.”
The restaurant will serve “the best burger, the best pizza in Vero,” Mallon boasted, and other “high-quality bar food.”
Ground clearing has already begun and the course will be planted within two weeks. “The course will be beautiful by October. It will be done before the building,” Mallon said.
The building plans are with the county building department now and Mallon will select a builder from a short list of three in the next two weeks.
The building will take four months, Bird said, and depending on county building approvals and the building contractor’s timeline, the project will be done by New Year’s Day at the earliest, but February 2018 is more likely.
Bird said Mallon has worked out a unique 30-bay design with Big Shots, and “anybody that buys this model outside the state – we get a royalty and partial franchise fee.” Mallon also has exclusive rights to open Big Shots Golf franchises in Florida.
“We plan to build three more in other locations, but we wanted the first one to be in Vero,” Bird said. “It’s a $5 million project.”
