Schaumburg panel likes plan for Andretti Indoor Karting, parking deck by convention center
Schaumburg's zoning board has recommended approval of long-awaited plans for Andretti Indoor Karting & Games along with a six-story parking deck to anchor the first phase of an entertainment district around the existing Schaumburg Convention Center and Renaissance Hotel.
Village board approval on Nov. 14 would enable the start of construction expected to be completed in mid-2025.
The 89,300-square-foot entertainment venue would 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 would have space for 976 vehicles and sport a 14-foot-tall electronic message board with the top 52 feet above the ground.
Schaumburg Landscape & Design Planner Todd Wenger said the message board's content likely would focus on events at the convention center and adjacent Andretti facility, while the parking deck's architecture would be complementary to Andretti's.
The first phase of the entertainment district includes pads for two future restaurants north of Andretti Karting, but the zoning board's review confined itself to the two buildings already designed.
Apart from two absences, the zoning board's recommendation was unanimous and did not suggest any changes, Wenger said.
"We're staying pretty true to the original concept for it," he said of the entertainment district's first phase. "I'm excited to see what the next phases are going to be."
Though Andretti Karting first was proposed as the anchor of the entertainment district's initial phase in January 2022, it was only this June that village trustees 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.
Other recent preparations for the entertainment district have included demolishing the vacated Woodfield Green single-story office complex to the north, and the refinement of the design of 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 loss of 291 existing parking spaces in the short term, but the village's acquisition of the still vacant land to the north is another preparation for that, Wenger said.