Petaluma family plans mini golf course project

Free Range Mini Golf would add another family-friendly entertainment option to Petaluma.|

Kelly Valera relishes the fond memories of the summers of her youth spent working at a family fun center in western New York. The first time her future husband visited her, she took him to the Charcoal Corral, her beloved entertainment complex.

“Everyone calls it the Corral, and it’s literally the only thing there is to do in town and the towns around,” the Petaluma resident said. “I took him to the only place to go at the time and he couldn’t believe how cool it was. He thought it was well-done and the mini-golf was awesome … he said ‘I want to open one of those,’ and I was like ‘yeah, yeah, yeah.’”

Now, about a dozen years later, the couple has hatched a plan to open Free Range Mini Golf, a Petaluma-centric family fun center proposed in the northeast corner of the city. They’re working with the owner of the Charcoal Corral to help develop a concept, also enlisting a team of local architects and designers.

Plans are taking shape for the complex, which is slated to include an 18-hole outdoor course with a nine-hole course inside an adjacent building with an arcade, a snack bar, party rooms and a play area for children.

“It’s a modern type of mini-golf,” Valera said. “It doesn’t have those windmills and bears - it’s going to have really fun water elements and really cool landscaping and fun sculptures … the inside will be a little more family-oriented but still using Petaluma elements.”

Those designs intended to pay homage to hometown Petaluma could include a small-scale working version of the D Street drawbridge or a model of the David Yearsly River Heritage Center, she said. Valera hopes to loop in the community, potentially working with local schools to help manufacture some of the whimsical takes on local monuments.

“We really love it here and we feel so lucky to be here,” said Valera, who also publishes a neighborhood magazine and organizes an event that connects the community with volunteer opportunities at local nonprofits. “It was a really easy decision to make it all about Petaluma.”

As a mother of an 8-year-old and a 2-year-old, Valera said she also hopes to create a space for children as well as adults.

“We want it to be upscale, so it’s good for any age … we picture people having their first dates there,” she said.

A formal application will be submitted to the city this week for the development at the 5101 Montero Way lot that the couple is leasing, she said. The more than one-acre parcel is zoned to allow mini-golf courses, and Valera and her husband Jeff hope to complete the project as early as May 2018, as long as necessary city approvals are in place.

An existing building with 6,200 square feet of space that once housed the Showcase of Motorcars dealership will be converted into the family fun center, she said. The couple sold their home and are renting locally to help get seed money for the project, which is estimated to cost $650,000. They’re also seeking investors and have fielded early expressions of interest, Valera said.

“We’re all in,” she said.

Ingrid Alverde, the city’s economic development manager who has been working with the family, said the idea is in keeping with a nationwide trend, where business owners are moving from retail stores toward experience-based ventures.

“Petaluma has been a popular place - people are interested in doing unique projects in Petaluma and taking advantage of the growing population and growing demographic. There’s a shift happening and more families are moving to Petaluma and people are looking at being able to take advantage of that.”

(Contact Hannah Beausang at hannah.beausang@arguscourier.com.)

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