Topgolf’s closest operation to Mobile is in Baton Rouge, a nearly 200-mile drive. Birmingham, also home to Topgolf, is 210 miles away.
In other words, there are no Topgolf golf entertainment venues within a close driving distance to Alabama’s largest coastal city.
Related content: Topgolf in Mobile: $22 million project, 60 hitting bays, 150 jobs and $2.5 million in economic incentives
The realization is a top selling point for Mobile city officials as they contemplate the approval of a project agreement that requires a $1.25 million incentive to bring Topgolf to the McGowin Park shopping center.
Council members, during Tuesday’s meeting, repeatedly expressed the regional attractiveness of bringing Topgolf to Mobile, when other nearby cities – primarily, Pensacola, Florida, and Biloxi, Mississippi – do not have one.
“It’s time for Mobile to get money back from Mississippi and Florida,” said Council President CJ Small. “People are going to Florida to play the lottery, or Mississippi to play at the casinos. I really believe this will draw people not just from the Mobile area, but Mississippi and Florida and from North Mobile County.”
Other council members echoed Small’s comments.
“For so long we’ve had tourism dollars leave Mobile and go somewhere else whether it’s the casinos in Mississippi, the lottery in Florida or the beaches and other things,” Councilman Ben Reynolds said. “Here’s a chance for us to get some of that back and have folks come to our place to enjoy Topgolf.”
Indeed, the prospects of luring visitors from the Florida Panhandle and the Mississippi Gulf Coast loom large over the council’s vote next week on its portion of the Topgolf project agreement.
The vote will occur after the Mobile Council Commission, in a 2-1 vote Monday, endorsed its portion of the project agreement that includes a separate $1.25 million incentive.
Incentive support
Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson said discussions with Topgolf have occurred for the past five years, and he acknowledged that the city is “wooing” the company to come to the city.
“Everyone else would like to have Topgolf,” Stimpson said.
He said at the time Huntsville and Birmingham brought a Topgolf venue to their cities, the company was not yet a “proven entity.”
Topgolf established entertainment centers in Huntsville and Birmingham in 2017, and neither city has paid a direct incentive to the company.
“They had something to prove in those cities,” Stimpson said. “They’ve proven what they can do to a community and how it improves entertainment, and quality of life.”
He added, “It’s a competitive process now. Our sister cities didn’t have to incentivize it, but I don’t see us being in that position.”
Councilman Joel Daves said that in the past, he has been hesitant to support direct incentives to support retail projects. But he said that Topgolf is different from other businesses already in Mobile.
“A lot of times you are helping a business compete against existing business,” said Daves, referring to cities that dish out incentives to retailers. “That’s not the case with this project. I think it’s an appropriate use of incentive dollars to bring Topgolf to Mobile. I don’t see it competing with our existing businesses. It’s a proven concept.”
Said Britton Bonner, the city’s counsel on economic development projects, “Most folks will characterize this as a retail project, but it’s a retail and entertainment project. We view this as outside-the-norm and not your typical project.”
An analysis on the project does not include a projection on how many people Topgolf in Mobile will attract, or whether a sizable portion of its visitors will travel from outside of Mobile.
David Rodgers, vice-president of economic development with the Mobile Chamber, speaks in support of a public subsidy to lure Topgolf to the McGowin Park shopping center during the Mobile County Commission’s meeting on Monday, August 22, 2022, at Government Plaza in Mobile, Allah (John Sharp/[email protected]).
David Rodgers, vice-president of economic development with the Mobile Chamber, said the $22 million venue will attract enough sales and property tax revenues to return the public’s return on investment within “2.3 years” of opening. The venue could be open by late next year.
The Mobile venue, if the council supports the incentive, could be under construction by fall. It will contain many of the trendy features associated with similar Topgolf venues featuring a popular golf driving range game with electronically tracked golf balls and automatically scored drivers.
The Mobile venue is proposed to be a two-story structure with 60 hitting bays, mini-golf and an outdoor patio. It will be built on 9-1/2 acres where a multiplex cinema now sits abandoned.
Todd Waldo, a representative with Topgolf, told the council that the $1.25 million incentive was “critical” on whether they will build in Mobile.
“I feel like we selected the right property,” Waldo told council members during their pre-conference meeting. “(The project agreement) brings us one step closer to making this a reality.”
Questioning wages
The biggest question mark appears to be with the type of wages the company will offer in Mobile.
Councilman Cory Penn asked Waldo for a breakdown on salaries for full-time workers, and part-timers. Waldo declined to provide details, other than to say the high-end salary range is around $100,000 for the venue’s general manager.
“We are 1-1/2 years away from opening our doors,” Waldo said. “It’s an exciting place to work for college folks and (Topgolf offers) competitive wages and a fun environment to work.”
On Monday, Mobile County Commissioner Merceria Ludgood – the commission’s only “No” vote on their portion of the project agreement – said she did not receive answers to her questions about wages, which is one of the reasons she voted against the agreement.
The project agreement requires 150 jobs be reached no later than June 30, 2024. If the venue’s operations do not begin by then, $250,000 will be paid to each the county and the city no later than July 31, 2024. Additional $250,000 fees will be owed to both the city and county for each year after that until 2028, if the project is not completed and staffed with employees.
Waldo told county commissioners on Monday that a range of “40 to 60” of the positions will be full-time, with the remainder as temporary jobs.
Fifty percent of the new employees are to be “local residents,” with the exception of “certain back-office operations that require relocation of personnel,” according to the agreement.
The company has come under fire for questionable labor practices in other markets and has been sued in some cases. In March, Topgolf settled a class-action lawsuit following claims that it incentivized managers at its US locations to pay employees less than the federal minimum wage for untipped labor.
James Barber, chief of staff to Stimpson, said he believed the questions about Topgolf’s average salaries elsewhere were “unfair.” He said the company has to be “competitive” within the market where it operates, and he said he is confident that Topgolf’s salaries in Mobile will be competitive.