Natomas Topgolf: Approved in 2025, Still Dirt in 2026 — Now Plans Are Filed. Here's the Wallet Math.

The city signed off on an 80-bay venue promising 250+ jobs. A year later the site was reportedly up for sale, and then building plans showed up the same week the stall made news. No public subsidy has turned up so far, so the real cost of waiting is the empty land.

Vacant Topgolf site (outlined) between Venture Oaks Way, Gateway Oaks Dr. and I-5, South Natomas. Source: City of Sacramento, Topgolf Natomas Initial Study (P24-034), Fig. 2, Aug. 2025; imagery Esri 2024, ESA 2024.

Where it is

The project sits on a vacant site of about 14.5 acres in South Natomas, between Venture Oaks Way and Gateway Oaks Drive, right next to Interstate 5, with hotels on either side. City records list it as six parcels (APNs 274-0320-059 through -064) in the Gateway Centre Planned Unit Development, zoned OB-PUD (office building, mixed-use). It is in City Council District 3.

The land has been empty for a long time. At the 2025 hearing, city planner Zach Dahla said the property had sat empty for decades, through several PUD amendments. CBS Sacramento reported in 2024 that before the pandemic a developer wanted to put a 12-story office building there, and later someone applied to build apartments.

What was promised

Then-Councilmember (now Vice Mayor) Karina Talamantes announced the project on Aug. 12, 2024. She said it would be a 58,000-square-foot venue that would "generate 250+ new jobs and contribute approximately 15 million dollars in economic growth to our community." She also said it would draw about 250,000 visitors a year. State Sen. Angelique Ashby wrote that an earlier version of the deal had fallen apart during COVID.

The approved project is smaller. On Aug. 28, 2025, the Planning and Design Commission approved a two-story, 45,000-square-foot building with 80 bays, a restaurant, a bar, event space, 350 parking spaces, and outfield netting up to 156 feet tall. The approval package included a conditional use permit, site plan and design review, a tree permit to remove eight trees, a PUD amendment, and a CEQA exemption that relied on the city's 2040 General Plan EIR. In 2024, Topgolf said construction would take about a year once permits were in hand.

Nobody has shown how the $15 million and 250-job figures were calculated. We found no city analysis behind them.

Graphic: Sacconews. Sources: City of Sacramento (P24-034); Sacramento Business Journal; Talamantes, Aug. 2024.

The stall

On Oct. 9, 2026, the Sacramento Business Journal reported that "more than a year after the city of Sacramento approved a new Topgolf location in South Natomas, there's no sign of it moving forward soon." The headline added: "Project site on the market." The rest of the story is behind a paywall.

Five days later, on Oct. 14, SBJ reported that Vice Mayor Talamantes had posted on social media that Topgolf has filed plans to build. Filing plans starts the building-permit review. It does not mean construction has started, and it does not tell us who owns the land or whether the sale listing has been pulled.

What changed at Topgolf

The company changed hands during the delay. On Jan. 1, 2026, Topgolf Callaway Brands sold 60% of Topgolf to private-equity firm Leonard Green & Partners. The deal valued Topgolf at about $1.1 billion. Callaway kept 40% and went back to the name Callaway Golf Company (SEC 8-K; company release, Jan. 5, 2026). In 2025, before the sale, executives said they had made "a conscious decision to slow growth" and focus on sales at existing venues. In May 2026, Topgolf laid off hundreds of employees nationwide (D Magazine). CEO David McKillips now says Topgolf plans three to five new U.S. venues a year, often with smaller footprints. Sacramento is competing for one of those slots.

Wallet math: who pays, and what if it never gets built

• Subsidies: We found no city incentive, fee waiver, or land deal in the public announcements or the commission materials we reviewed. As far as we can tell, the project is privately financed on private land.
• Cost to the city so far: The usual cost of planning staff time on entitlements, which applicants normally pay for through fees. If the project never gets built, taxpayers don't owe anything we know of.
• What the city gives up: Vacant land produces almost no sales tax, no hotel-adjacent spending, and none of the promised jobs. Property tax is based on Prop 13 assessed value, so the bill on a dirt lot is a small fraction of what a finished $40M-class venue would pay. D Magazine reports that full-size Topgolf venues cost upward of $40 million to build. That is a national figure, not a Sacramento estimate.
• If it dies: The entitlements are attached to the use, and the 2025 PUD amendment now specifically allows an outdoor amusement center on the site. A buyer could pick up the Topgolf approvals or start over with offices or housing, which were both tried before.
• Nearby: Other Natomas projects keep moving. SBJ has reported on a warehouse grocer paying $17 million for land in North Natomas and on an electric-car maker seeking permits for a Natomas sales center.

Bottom line

No public money is visibly at risk. What's at risk is the time already lost and the jobs and tax revenue that were promised. The approvals came more than a year ago, and the plans were filed only after the stall made news. The next real milestone is a building permit being issued and work starting on the site.