Local family working to open golf simulator in downtown Greeley

GREELEY — Just when you were ready to believe that there was still not enough for people in Greeley to do, another recreational business comes to town.

Come this October, the Landwehr family of Kersey plans to open Against the Grain Golf, an indoor virtual golf course that will allow patrons to play 18 holes in an hour and even challenge friends across the country.

Bailey Landwehr and his father, Wayne Landwehr, are working hard to get the former D&D Bean Co. building at 601 10th St. in shape for a hopeful opening in October. They are working through city approvals.

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“Greeley golf courses are getting harder to get onto,” said Bailey Landwehr, 26, and a former collegiate football player at the University of Northern Colorado and the University of Colorado. “Golf simulators are a decent market, especially when wintertime comes.”

Solstice 21 LLC, an entity with Stacy Collins Landwehr as registered agent, purchased the property from Global Properties and Management LLC in March for $1.3 million.

It is directly east of the Greeley Area Chamber of Commerce and next door to the Greeley Model Train Museum on the east side of downtown. The building was most recently owned and remodeled by Joe Molina, head of Global Properties and Management, who had plans to operate it as a hemp research facility. Given previous upgrades inside the building, Bailey Landwehr said the more-serious work on the building will be more cosmetic on the outside, and installing a fire-suppression system.

“Overall, it’s fairly decent and involves more of a tenant finish, but for the most part, the bones are really good on the building. That’s why we got it,” Bailey said. The building was built in 1939 and operated as a bean and elevator company for decades.

If approved for this new use, it will join a growing number of recreation-style business in downtown, including the Hatchet House, 820 Ninth St., Stella’s Pinball and Arcade Lounge, 802 Ninth St., HD Escape Rooms at 810 Ninth St., Greeley Game Night at Boomer House, 1024 Eighth St., and the Greeley Climbing Collective, under construction at 1516 Eighth Ave.

Bailey and his father plan to do much of the work themselves. They are electricians by trade and operate Omega Service and Supply, a full-service industrial equipment sales and asset recovery company. They plan to run both businesses out of the building.

Bailey said there are several advantages to playing on golf simulators rather than golf courses, which can have a tendency to bottleneck when some groups are slower than others, sometimes making a four-hour day into a six-hour day.  With the golf simulator, players can complete a game in an hour or so, and players can play each other, or people across the country who have the same systems.

“The cool thing about our simulators is they all sync up,” Bailey said. “You can go with a foursome and all play on different simulators. You can play with a friend in Arizona while you’re in Greeley. It has to be the same brand, but these ones are blowing up. They’re a good one to have.”

According to the National Golf Foundation, more than 26 million Americans ages 6 and over in 2023 played on golf courses, and another 18.4 million who played exclusively off-course at driving ranges venues such as Top Golf, and indoor golf simulators.

Bailey said he has three simulators on order, and will get to six in total. The business also will have a bar, and he plans to bring in arcade games to make the venue more family friendly.

“Our simulators have high-end courses, they will be realistic,” Bailey said. “They move, they have different hitting surfaces, … and you can play however you want.”

Golfers can bring their own clubs or use clubs provided.