Andretti Indoor Karting groundbreaking signals start of Schaumburg entertainment district construction

A rendering depicts the proposed Andretti Indoor Karting & Games alongside a six-story parking deck on the west side of the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel & Convention Center, with the speculative design of two future restaurants just north on Thoreau Drive.
Courtesy of village of Schaumburg

An invitation-only groundbreaking ceremony Friday will see the start of construction on Andretti Indoor Karting & Games as the anchor of the first phase of Schaumburg’s forthcoming entertainment district around the village’s convention center.

An estimate of the venue’s opening date hasn’t been made, but Andretti Karting’s Director of Marketing Samantha LaMagna said most have taken a little more than a year to build. Winter 2025 seems a likely time, she added.

The construction getting under way also will include a village-owned six-level public parking deck. Both projects recently underwent a site plan revision because of a utility easement issue.

The Joint Action Water Agency required both structures to be built 6 feet north of their original plan due to a utility easement running parallel to the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway at the south end of the site.

The 89,300-square-foot Andretti Karting building will feature a multilevel indoor electric go-kart track as well as a restaurant, bowling alley, laser tag room, ride simulator room and a variety of games.

A 7,800-square-foot mezzanine area on the second floor is planned to include private rooms for parties and events.

The village-owned parking deck will feature complementary architecture, space for 976 vehicles and a 14-foot-tall electronic message board facing the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway.

The message board’s content will likely focus on events at the convention center and Andretti Karting, village officials said.

The first phase of the entertainment district on the west side of the adjacent Renaissance Hotel includes designated space for two future restaurants north of Andretti Karting.

“I believe the construction will bring more interest to the other pad sites as the project is now ‘real,’” Schaumburg Economic Development Director Matt Frank said.

While initially proposed in 2022, it wasn’t until 2023 that plans moved forward when the village abandoned long-held hopes for a performing arts center.

That decision included reallocating the $27.5 million already saved for the performing arts center to the village’s building replacement fund.

Construction of Andretti Karting and the parking deck will cause the temporary loss of 291 existing parking spaces. However, the village bought vacant land to the north in preparation for construction-related parking issues.