Speakeasy Liquors Heading for Marion's Restaurant Row

The new $600,000 building going up at the corner of Halfway Road/Champions Drive and 17th Street/Morgan Avenue between the Country Inn & Suites and 17th St. Bar and Grill will soon be home to Speakeasy Liquors come sometime in May.

They're shooting to be the city's "premier liquor store" with a "large beer cave, a cigar humidor, and a premium wine cellar." Their goal is to set a "new standard in quality and product selection while maintaining cost competitive products."

Diederich Properties took out the building permit. Jeff Diederich is the principal owner. His other businesses include Diederich Insurance and the 20s Hideout Steakhouse at the other end of Halfway Road.

They already have a Facebook page. Yesterday, they provided the latest update.

With approximately 60 days remaining until our grand opening, Speakeasy Liquors would like your input. We are currently working on developing our wine cellar and cigar humidor inventory selections. Naturally, we will have the basic items however; if you have any suggestions regarding premium wine or cigars we would love to hear them.

The new location will be at the crossroads of I-57 traffic coming down Morgan Avenue and as well as baseball fans and golfers coming down Champion Drive (formerly that part of Halfway Road up on The Hill) from Rent One Park and when the current roadwork is finished later this spring) Kokopelli Golf Course.

Kokopelli's Renovations on Course with Clubhouse

The newly renovated and expanded restaurant at Kokopelli Golf Club — Koko's — has opened to rave reviews.

The grand staircase is gone, and the bar which awkwardly stood out on one side of the dining area, has been moved to the old pro shop. The pro shop has moved downstairs to the former main entrance.

"Golfers wanted a place where they could go that wasn't in the middle of the dining room," Events Coordinator Mark Sutton said. "That almost doubled our seating capacity and made us more flexible because we're able to divide it off for different things."

A wood floor covers the space originally open for the building's main staircase. That brings diners close to a picturesque view of the golf course and neighborhood.

The moves are all part of a rehabilitation and expansion of the course facilities and housing development by the new owners Green Grass Group. In addition, work is underway on an extension of Champions Drive southward from the clubhouse to Halfway Road at Rent One Park.

Late last year, the Marion City Council, officially changed some of the street names around the area of The Hill development. Halfway Road now stops at the base of The Hill at 17th Street. Champions Drive will run up the hill, past MidCountry Bank, Fairfield Inn, and the west side of Rent One Park before entering Kokopelli and heading up to the clubhouse.

As part of the name changes, the city also dropped Fairmount Homes Drive from the list of street names, replacing it with Morgan Avenue, which now includes the new overpass over Interstate 57 and runs to Halfway Road, where it becomes 17th Street, in honor of the barbecue bar and grill at the intersection.

For more information about Kokopelli check out their website, KokopelliGolf.com.

Kokopelli Deal Closed This Morning

The Green Grass Group LLC closed on its long-suffering effort today to secure the Kokopelli golf course in Marion, one of the top-rated courses in the state.

Dutch Doelitzsch gave a Marion Chamber of Commerce a brief update at today's luncheon, telling the group the new ownership signed all the paperwork closing the deal this morning at 11:20 a.m. Yesterday they had met with club members and Kokopelli residents about their plans.

Kokopelli Golf Pro Jesse Barge outlined the new owners' plans for the course this afternoon. Changes will be made to the club house, grounds and some upcoming events.

Clubhouse

• The restaurant will re-open later this month under the name Koko's. After additional renovations are complete, the restaurant will be able to seat 300 for a wedding reception or other large gatherings.
• The pro shop will move to the lower level just inside the current lobby area. This will allow all of the golfing operations on one level while creating more space for the restaurant above. In order to do this the grand staircase will be removed and a new ceiling/floor installed to create more dining area above.
• The former pro shop area will become the new Koko's Sports Grill. The current bar which sits in the main dining space will be removed to the new sports grill.
• A new parking lot will be built on the north side of the club house at the same level as the restaurant.

Course and Grounds

• The remaining debris from last year's storms will be removed. Barge said last year they removed enough debris to make the course playable, but more needs to be done in order to help define the course in terms of margins and out-of-bounds.
• Champions Drive which now ends in the current club house parking lot will be extended south to Halfway Road which now ends at the north edge of Rent One Park. This will allow direct access to the clubhouse from area hotels and the interstate.
• A new 48-lot upscale housing development will be platted along the new extension which will also be calls Champions. These will be single-family homes and not condominiums. [Although he didn't mention it, many of these lots may face the lake that's on the north side of Rent One Park.]

In addition, Kokopelli will host the 2012 Men's Illinois State Amateur Championship in August of that year. Barge said it's the first time since 1995 that Southern Illinois has hosted the tournament when it was played at the Rend Lake Golf Course.

According to the Southern Illinoisan's early online coverage of this morning's news conference, roadwork will begin this fall.

...and will necessitate the shortening of Hole 15 by 78 to 150 yards and reducing par by a single stroke that will increase the course rating's difficulty.

For more on Barge, the Marion Daily did a nice profile on him in March.

Kokopelli Details to be Unveiled Tuesday

Now that Kokopelli has new local owners, area residents await details of their plans which will be announced Tuesday at a news conference in Marion.

The premier golf club has suffered from non-local ownership over the last few years and a year-long process to sell the course and restaurant held up by the federal government.

David Hays and Michael Koller, principal owners of Green Grass Group LLC, will let everyone know more in three days.

Already previous hints indicate more residential development. Other ideas over the years have included condos and some short-term tourism rentals on the golf course.

In April the owners let some of the details slip to the Southern.

Green Grass has big plans for the club's future, which include the development of a planned community, "The Club at Kokopelli," Green Grass Vice President Mike Koller said.

The community is planned for the area around what will be a new entrance to the club on Halfway Road. The road will tie the club from its current parking lot to Halfway Road near Rent One Park.

"This is going to be a long-term project. Our goal is to have up to 90 units," said Koller, who will be heading up the company's development plans.

The extension of Halfway Road north of Rent One Park up to the clubhouse. That was part of the original Hill development plan.

From a tourism standpoint, it would make the clubhouse and course much more accessible to travelers wanting to golf or sample the fine dining.

Hays also owns Mary's Restaurant and Bed and Breakfast in Herrin.

Green Grass Group LLC purchasd the course from Kokopelli Master Partners, a Florida consortium based in Gainesville. They had acquired it from Dutch native and Zimbabwe-national John Bredenkamp. The Times of Johannesburg, South Africa, has more on him.