NAPLES, Florida — Golf entertainment center BigShots Golf was set to open in this town next year but now company officials have pulled out of their previous agreement with Collier County.
In late April, BigShots Golf Senior Vice President Randall Cousins stood in front of the Board of Collier County Commissioners and explained how the company had faced issues while financing the project. The board voted to give BigShots a 60-day extension to finish its budget and plans.
BigShots Chief Legal Officer Emily Decker emailed county officials on June 19 saying BigShots was terminating its land lease.
“There’s no one in the room that’s more disappointed than I am that BigShots canceled their lease,” Commissioner Burt Saunders said during Tuesday’s Collier County Commission meeting. “None of us could have foreseen that.”
Why did BigShots terminate its lease?
“The world has changed significantly from the time we initially evaluated the opportunity,” BigShots Golf Senior Vice President Randall Cousins said. “Today, we face increased costs in every major category, including financing, construction, and operations. In the past several months, we’ve explored many options to mitigate these challenges and invested several million dollars of sunk cost into development and materials. Unfortunately, we did not find a sustainable solution.”
Saunders said BigShots terminated its lease because the company was unable to finish financing the project within the allotted time.
“Quite frankly, the folks at Club Corp and BigShots really just weren’t communicating with us,” Saunders said. “They weren’t really honest with us as to what was really going on. As late as April they were in here talking about financing and we all knew that that was probably not the case.”
The commissioners gave the company six extensions but BigShots was unable to finish budgeting and planning by June.
“These challenges are not exclusive to Collier County, and we are thankful for the patience and support we’ve received from Commissioner Saunders as we evaluated and exhausted our options,” Cousins said.
What was BigShots going to offer?
BigShots was planning on opening an outdoor 12-hole golf course, virtual driving range, and restaurant next year in Collier County.
The driving range would have been two stories and offered feedback for golfers based on data from their swings.
The restaurant was going to be on-site with an option to have food delivered to the…
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