FRANKLIN, Wis. — As skiing, tubing, and snowboarding season is about to launch at the Rock in Franklin, construction crews are hard at work building a golf attraction adjacent to the hill at Ballpark Commons.
It’s one of the final pieces in the vision of ROC Ventures CEO, Mike Zimmerman, who’s turned the former landfill into a destination he expects will draw a million people a year.
“I think people didn’t think this was actually going to happen,” Zimmerman admitted about the Luxe Golf Bays project, which has been talked about for seven years. “We had a little bit of a snag with COVID, but yeah, we're coming out of the ground now. You can see the elevator shafts going up. It's very exciting.”
Luxe Golf will be a three-level, driving range type set-up where heated bays open to a 215-yard, target-filled expanse. The $27 million facility can certainly serve the serious golfer, but it’s really more of an entertainment model.
“It's designed more for the socialite,” Zimmerman explained. “So you're hitting these balls out. You're playing games with your friends. You're sitting on a couch, couple seats. You've got a whole food and beverage component to it as well. TV screens. It's very much about the social piece of it.”
A brew pub with a beer garden will be one of two restaurants opening with this latest development. Zimmerman began transforming the land in southern Milwaukee County with baseball.
“It's built off of what is known as The Rock Sports Complex, which is 6 baseball fields, the ski hill, the Umbrella Bar, now with the stadium, coffee shop. We've got two restaurants coming in. We've got a performance center right next to it. When this is set up, it will be about a million people that come to this destination every year.”
Construction crews are expected to break ground on a hotel on the property next year, with the Luxe Golf Bays opening in late May. https://www.rocventures.org/