Smash park building for sale; popular venue will remain open, owner says

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Owners of the popular Smash Park, which launched the popularity of pickleball in the Des Moines area, are selling the building in which the activity-based restaurant and bar is located, Monty Lockyear told the Business Record today.

Lockyear stressed, however, that Smash Park will remain open.

“The Smash Park business is healthy and there are zero plans to sell it,” Lockyear wrote in an email. “We’re simply exercising some short-term profit taking by selling the [West Des Moines] real estate and diversifying by investing in the real estate of multiple franchise locations.”

Smash Park, located at 6625 Coachlight Drive, east of Jordan Creek Town Center in West Des Moines, opened in 2018. The business combines eating and drinking with playing games like pickleball, bocce ball and bags. Venues such as Smash Park are popular nationwide with businesses like Dave & Busters and Top Golf expanding rapidly. 

The eatertainment business – the industry buzzword for the trend – is popular in the Des Moines area as well, with the opening of Game Day in Merle Hay Mall and expansion of the Pleasant Hill-based Great Escape – The Ultimate Experience. 

“To get people to go out and eat somewhere, they want something more than to just sit down at a table; they want the complete experience,” Monty Lockyear told the Business Record in November. The Lockyears plan to sell franchises for Smash Park and have explored opening a second location in downtown Des Moines.

Monty Lockyear wrote that the couple plans to use the West Des Moines facility as the “training store” for franchises and plans to open a franchise office in the Des Moines area.

The couple is asking $8.9 million for the 28,290-square-foot facility that sits on about 3.5 acres, the real estate listing for the property shows. The listing says the sale of the property includes a 15-year lease with a single-use tenant. 

Dallas County real estate records show that Fleetwater Real Estate Investment bought the Coachlight Drive property in 2016 for $1.25 million. Fleetwater is operated by Monty Lockyear, records show. The property was valued at $3.1 million in 2019, up 30% from its 2018 value of $2.3 million, records show.

The property is listed with CBRE/Hubbell Commercial; the listing agent is Jon Ledinsky.