Estero Village’s staff and consultants will be busy the rest of the summer finishingplans for an entertainment centeroff Via Coconut Way and Williams Road.
The Village council gave the staff the go ahead last week at its final meeting before the summer hiatus to negotiate agreements with Chicken N Pickle, of North Kansas City, Missouri, and High 5 Entertainment, of Austin, Texas, to provide entertainment facilities on 10 acres of the 20-acre site.
The goal is to have the design completed by November and construction beginning in April 2024.
The Village paid more than $7 million for the properties, which includes the driving range fronting Williams Road. It has agreed to spend another $12 million to develop the site and build 12 to 15 outdoor pickleball courts and a miniature golf course.
Chicken N Pickle andHigh 5 each agreed to spend $15 million each to build their facilities.
Chicken N Pickle has 15 locations either open or soon to open, most of them scattered across Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado.
Chicken N Pickle would build a two-story building with about 20,000 square feet of space that includes a restaurant, six indoor pickleball courts and an outdoor social area.
Chicken N Pickle would run the outside pickleball courts built by the Village. Estero residents would get first dibs to use the courts.
The Village would receive 10 percent of the company’s first $500,000 in sales; 20 percent of sales between $500,000 and $1 million and 30 percent over $1 million.
High 5 has two locations in Texas. The Estero building would house two stories of 16 full-size bowling lanes, eight duckpin lanes, bocce, ax throwing, laser tag, an arcade and escape rooms.
The Village would receive a 15 percent distribution of High 5’s profits.
The Village expects to receive a little over $1 million annually from the two businesses.
Councilman George Zalucki visited a Chicken N Pickle and a High 5 in Texas and thought they would make a great addition to Estero.
“I was pretty much in awe,” he said about the Chicken N Pickle building. “I’ve never been to a facility like this. You look to the right is a building where the indoor pickleball occurs. To the left is where the restaurant and entertainment are.”
Council members did have some concerns. Mayor Jon McLain wondered how difficult it might be for the buildings to meet Estero’s design criteria.
“The architectural part, that is probably the thing I will be most concerned about,” he said.
He also wondered if arcade games should be the first thing you see when you walk in to High 5, he said.
“That’s not the first impression I want to see,” he said.
He wanted to know if High 5 might make changes.
Councilman Jim Ward wondered if the entertainment met the Village’s demographics.
“It’s in their best interest to appease our demographics,” said consultant Michael Camprado. “It doesn’t make sense for them to come in with a group of features that appeal to a demographic that doesn’t exist.”
McLain wanted to know if the businesses could meet the Village’s tight deadline.
“From a timing perspective they won’t be the ones holding us up,” Camprado said. “If I have a concern, we have a lot of work to do to make sure what we will want it to look like to fit in their budgets. That’s what I’m most concerned about.”
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