Metro North’s new golf & entertainment complex: ‘A crown jewel for the Northland’
More than five years after taking over Metro North Shopping Center, its redevelopers are rolling out their first new anchor tenant.
The 52,000-square-foot T-Shotz golf and entertainment center is scheduled to open Tuesday at 660 N.W. Metro North Drive.
“It’s going to be a crown jewel for the Northland,” said David Horn, project manager for the redeveloper, Metro North Crossing LLC. “This is the first major piece in the redevelopment.”
T-Shotz will feature 66 roomy, climate-controlled hitting bays and suites across three levels. Customers can eat, drink and socialize while playing a variety of golf games and virtual courses. Or they can come just to eat and drink while watching the action.
Menu items will include Lily’s Baked Potato pizza with diced Yukon gold potatoes, bacon, cheddar and brick cheese, chives and potato cream for $14; blackened swordfish street tacos for $12; and shareables such as chicken wings, ginger pork pot stickers, garlic knots and tandoori chicken skewers.
The menu also includes salads, soups, sandwiches, burgers and sliders.
It will have craft cocktails, beer and whiskey, along with beer and whiskey flights, wine and sangria.
The opening will give a much needed boost to the $190 million redevelopment project. Plans call for a cinema, hotel, multi-family residential, retail and restaurants, and a specialty grocery store. Metro North Crossing also will incorporate a balloon-theme in homage to the mini hot air balloons in Metro North Shopping Center.
The shopping center had been a fixture in the Northland since 1976. It shuttered in April 2014, except for the Macy’s attached to the west end of the mall. Long-time restaurants in freestanding buildings — McDonald’s, Olive Garden and Red Lobster — have continued to operate.
IAS Partners Ltd. formed Metro North Crossing LLC and closed on a deal to redevelop the site in 2015. By the end of that year, they said the build-out could take five to seven years to complete, depending on market conditions.
Since then they have sought tax increment financing from the city and other incentives such as community improvement district status.
They demolished roughly a million square feet of the old shopping center, recycling a majority of material. They also worked on the infrastructure, including raising North Wyandotte Street by 14 feet in some spots, creating a new entrance at Barry Road and North Jefferson Street, and putting in new public water services.
On the northeastern section of the development, 249 apartments are under construction, and 36 of those units will be two-story townhomes above 30,000-square-feet of retail space. It has letters of intent for most of the retail spaces.
“This site, in general, is a central location in serving the Northland,” Horn said. “With this T-Shotz opening and these apartments coming out of the ground. Things are going to start popping.”
This story was originally published October 8, 2020 at 5:00 AM.