Links at Ireland Grove - Shopping, Dining, Living

Golf course only for starters By Scott Miller scottmiller@pantagraph.com BLOOMINGTON - The Links at Ireland Grove development in east Bloomington caters to more than golfers. The 121-acre development includes plans for shopping, dining, living, playing, working and relaxing. "This whole development is family oriented," said investor Darren Rogers, highlighting plans for a daycare center, a residential subdivision, a business park, a strip mall, a surgical center and a restaurant." All the buildings will be stone masonry," he added. When Royal Links Golf Course closed in 2003, Rogers, Jeff Hunt and a group of investors decided to develop a golf course on Ireland Grove Road in east Bloomington. The Links at Ireland Grove opens in April. Plans have developed way beyond the golf course.Early construction of 174 residential units, including townhouses and one- and two-story homes, is under way on the south side of Ireland Grove Road. The subdivision will have a private clubhouse with a pool, sauna and sunroom. While homes will be built for the next three years, models of each style will be available for viewing in April, Hunt said. Prices range from $149,000 to $219,000. Lawn care, irrigation and wireless Internet access will be included, Rogers said. A daycare center is under construction next to the Pony Baseball Complex. It should open this summer, Hunt said. Next door, contractors have laid out the foundation plan for a four-tenant strip mall with a Subway restaurant as the anchor. That could possibly open in the fall, Hunt said. Just down the road, First State Bank has purchased land to develop another east-side facility. An opening date is unknown. Slightly west, two Twin City doctors purchased space to open a surgical center, Rogers said. Hunt was unsure when the site would open. Across the street, Rogers and Hunt have begun development of the golf course, a golf academy with adjacent driving range and the clubhouse, which will have a 2,500-square-foot golf retailer and two upper-floor offices for rent. Those facilities should open in mid-April. At the end of the driving range, contractors eventually will begin development of a new YMCA on six acres of land donated to the organization. The facility is scheduled to open sometime in 2008.Hunt and Rogers also have preliminary plans for a three-acre business park with four to six tenants. Finally, the development includes a stand-alone restaurant overlooking the ninth green. That won't open until next spring. "It's part of the golf course development, but it's going to be a destination itself. It's a hangout," Rogers said. "It'll have a tropical, cheeseburger-in-paradise-type theme."It has no name at this point, but the 4,000- to 4,500-square-foot restaurant will not be a chain, he said. The restaurant will feature a 2,500-square-foot patio - in addition to the 4,000 to 4,500 square feet of indoor space - with fountains and fire pits, Rogers said.