Andretti Indoor Karting, Schaumburg eye summer groundbreaking for entertainment district

Officials anticipate a summer groundbreaking for the first Midwest location of Andretti Indoor Karting & Games and a six-level public parking deck that would anchor the first phase of an entertainment district around the Schaumburg Convention Center and Renaissance Hotel.

Samantha LaMagna, director of marketing for Andretti Karting, said a 2025 opening is planned for the 89,300-square-foot entertainment venue. It will feature a multilevel indoor electric go-kart track as well as a restaurant, bowling alley, laser tag room, ride simulator room and a variety of games.

A 7,800-square-foot mezzanine area on the second floor is planned to include private rooms for parties and events.

The village-owned parking deck will feature complementary architecture, space for 976 vehicles and a 14-foot-tall electronic message board facing the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway.

The message board's content will likely focus on events at the convention center and Andretti Karting, village officials said.

The first phase of the entertainment district on the west side of the Renaissance Hotel includes designated space for two future restaurants north of Andretti Karting.

Andretti Karting was first proposed as the anchor of the entertainment district's initial phase in January 2022. But it was only last June that the village board officially abandoned 20-year-old plans for a 2,400-seat performing arts center on the same site.

That decision included reallocating the $27.5 million already saved for the performing arts center to the village's building replacement fund.

Trustees approved the final plans for Andretti Karting and the parking deck in November.

Earlier preparations for the entertainment district included buying, vacating and demolishing the Woodfield Green single-story office complex to the north and refining a design style for a proposed pedestrian bridge connecting it to the Veridian development on the former Motorola campus across Meacham Road.

Construction of Andretti Karting and the parking deck will cause the short-term loss of 291 existing parking spaces, but the village's acquisition of vacant land to the north was considered a preparation for that as well as for future phases of the entertainment district.