A bid by Top Golf to open its second Northern Virginia location is expected to win a key government approval early next month.
The 102-bay, three-story high-end driving range is planned for the Peterson Cos.’ Commonwealth Center development in Loudoun County, located south of Route 7, north of Russell Branch Parkway and east of Loudoun County Parkway. To the west is One Loudoun. To the north, University Center.
Loudoun planners oppose the facility, citing the county’s Comprehensive Plan and its goals of employment-generating Class A office development in the Route 28 business area. Top Golf, they said, does not maximize development potential and is not in keeping with high quality office space.
But county supervisors see things differently. Following a March 12 public hearing, they unanimously sent the application to the April 2 business meeting for approval.
“I understand where staff is coming from,” said Supervisor Shawn Williams, R-Broad Run. “I understand this is not necessarily the highest and best ideal use called for in our Comprehensive Plan, but it is a commercial use. I’m glad this landowner isn’t looking to convert to residential.”
Top Golf’s first and only — for now — Northern Virginia range is in Kingstowne. The Loudoun facility will be larger and feature an ancillary restaurant with a high-end chef, said Colleen Gillis Snow, a partner with Cooley LLP, who represented Top Golf before the county.
“We believe this is exactly the type of project that not only makes Class A office development at Commonwealth Center more viable, more realizable and something we’re going to see in our lifetime, but it also makes the vibrancy of the office market all around this intersection all that more possible,” Gillis Snow said.
The 71,000-square-foot Top Golf will include 10 lit targets and 26 netting polls, rising as high as 150 feet across 13 acres.
