Swingers Opens in DC Navy Yard
1250 Half Street SE, Washington, DC 20003
What started as a pop-up concept in London has expanded to three U.S. locations for the Swingers Crazy Golf entertainment brand, with its newest location recently opening in the bustling ballpark district of Washington D.C. Schimenti Construction was tapped to lead this new project after successfully leading the build-out of Swingers Nomad in New York City, last year. There were many challenges to delivering this project on budget and on time while holding it to the high standards of this quickly growing British brand, especially given the project’s size and complexity.
The new Washington D.C. venue spans an impressive 25,000 square feet across two floors in a new 10-story mixed-use building across from the Washington Nationals’ stadium. The space includes a 750-square-foot patio, three bars, three golf courses, four eateries, multiple lounges, a merchandise shop, and a 3-D photo booth — all designed with a distinctly British vibe. Schimenti was tasked with building out this new venue and managing the complex communication and scheduling details among all stakeholders, including the U.K.-based ownership and many owner vendors.
Photo Credit: Swingers
This Swingers location required strong leadership and coordination from the Schimenti team, to keep everyone aligned on project milestones and project sequencing. This space represents what could be more than a dozen different independent retail concepts, including local-restaurant vendors, mini-golf courses, and retail shops. We needed to ensure everyone involved was working in lockstep to create the high-end, immersive experience that Swingers is known for.
– Brian Madden, Assistant Project Manager
In addition to providing strong project management, the Schimenti team held high standards for the execution of the detailed millwork elements, which is an area of particular expertise for the Schimenti team. The project specified an owner-furnished millwork package designed by a team based in England.
“The precise attention that the detailed millwork required made for a challenging, value engineering process early on. Despite these obstacles, our team adapted and pivoted as needed and ensured we delivered a high-quality project on budget.”
– Dan Motill, Project Executive
The project had high standards for not only the finishes but the infrastructure as well. A building management system was put in place to allow for real-time monitoring and control of system operations, including a demand-controlled ventilation system and two main variable flow air conditioning units work in conjunction with multiple terminal variable air volume (VAV) boxes to provide HVAC for each floor as occupancy and temperatures vary throughout the space. An entirely LED lighting system also achieves the highest green code requirement at 30 percent better than the maximum wattage usage for the space.
This immersive retail concept is being well-received here in the U.S. and there are plans for another 14 new locations in the next two years.