The first Midwest location of Orlando-based Andretti Indoor Karting & Games is proposed to anchor the first phase of a new entertainment district in Schaumburg on the west side of the village's Renaissance Hotel and convention center. Other components would include another entertainment venue, a restaurant and a 900-space parking deck with an elevated walkway connecting it to the Renaissance on property long reserved for a performing arts center. Schaumburg officials are closing in on an agreement endorsed by the village's general government committee Monday to pay Oak Brook-based Kensington Development Partners $23.7 million to develop the first 8-acre phase of what's envisioned to ultimately be a 23-acre entertainment district on the east side of Meacham Road north of the I-90 tollway.
Andretti Karting would pay the village $6 million for a development-ready site where it plans to invest another $30 million in an 80,000-square-foot facility. The building would include a multilevel karting track, arcade, two-level laser tag arena, bowling, virtual reality attractions, a full restaurant and bar and 10,000 square feet of event space. The company has locations in Florida, Georgia and Texas. The pending agreement with Kensington would give it a two-year option to exclusively market and purchase the remaining two parcels in the entertainment district's first phase. Officials believe the Andretti facility will generate interest in those sites. "We need an icebreaker, and I think this is the icebreaker for that area over there," Schaumburg Trustee Frank Kozak said of the Andretti Karting venue Monday.
Construction of the parking garage is estimated at $17.9 million, though the additional cost of the pedestrian bridge to the Renaissance lobby has yet to be determined. The village's consultants at SB Friedman Development Advisors projected that Andretti Karting could contribute $12.5 million to the tax-increment financing district helping fund public improvements associated with the redevelopment on both sides of Meacham Road along Algonquin Road. The parking garage, for example, will be funded entirely by the TIF district that reserves an increment of its properties' annual real estate taxes for such improvements.
The Andretti Karting facility is also estimated to generate about $955,000 per year in consumer taxes for the village, based on an expectation of $16 million in annual sales. Company representatives said a million visitors a year are projected for the location. Plans for phase one of the entertainment district don't address the north side of Thoreau Drive, where the village expects to demolish the single-story, 110,000-square-foot Woodfield Green Executive Centre in the fall.
"There's tremendous opportunity to do additional phases here," Schaumburg Economic Development Director Matt Frank said.
That includes a possible relocation of the performing arts center long envisioned as part of the convention center campus, he said. The full village board will vote on the agreement with Kensington next Tuesday.
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