BUSINESS Those willing to brave the College Station heat Thursday morning enjoyed free coffee and snacks at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the latest PopStroke, built in a lightning-fast four months. PopStroke is a family friendly sports bar with two 18-hole mini-golf putting courses, an artificial grass lawn with games like foosball and cornhole, TVs, outdoor eating and more. The College Station location officially opened its doors Thursday in Century Square.
To celebrate the opening, Aggie Yell Leaders led a yell practice with the crowd. Grayson Poage, civil engineering senior, was one of the Aggie Yell Leaders who visited the opening. "It's actually my first time being out here, but it's pretty beautiful.
I'll have to play the course later for sure," he said. "I'm from Marble Falls, Texas, just west of Austin, and I've never been to a PopStroke facility like this before." Poage said he appreciates how, even if he's not good at golfing, there's still plenty to do while at the facility and ways to hang out with fellow students.
"I have golfed a little bit, but I do enjoy it for sure," he said. "I think it'll bring the students together and have somewhere to just have some fun and good food. It'll be a great time, especially like game day weekends.
" The College Station PopStroke features plenty of maroon, being the only PopStroke to do so. "It was super cool seeing A&M officials and city officials being out here all together. It shows the support that we have for our community," he said.
"I love to see they're embracing A&M and I think that'll bring people together. There's a lot that's personal to students here." After the yell practice, Glen Brewer, president and CEO of the Bryan/College Station Chamber of Commerce, thanked everyone for attending and introduced A&M Chancellor John Sharp.
"This was a piece of land that was basically worthless, and all of a sudden, this is Phase II that is going to be open in the fall. That's an additional 31,000 square feet. We've added over $150 million to the tax base of College Station with all this stuff," Sharp said.
Sharp said a PopStroke was a venture the department was actively interested in after visiting previous locations in Texas. "We were in Katy and we went to a PopStroke. .
.. On the way out, we saw thousands of people around this thing called PopStroke.
We thought, 'What the hell is this?'" he said. "It wasn't three months ago until we had the announcement of this thing and it's already built. This is going to be one of the greatest tailgating spots for students.
" After the ribbon cutting, Dennis Maloney, serving as mayor pro-tem due to Mayor John Nichols being unable to make it to the event, said he looks forward to the benefit that PopStroke will bring the community. "We just said, 'Bring [PopStroke] on in, we're here to help,'" he said. "That's our job, to facilitate business, help set it up in College Station and make our entire Bryan-College Station area better.
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And, this PopStroke is the only one that is maroon and white." The Century Square area has seen many new businesses open recently with some businesses still being constructed for Phase II, including Sephora, Coco Shrimp, ChopShop and Wells Fargo. Maloney said they hope to see continued growth in the area, creating a thriving downtown area for students and citizens alike.
"One of the most important challenges that a city council has is finding ways to bring amenities into your community that improve the quality of life," Maloney said. "We can offer people land, tax incentives, a tremendous educated population and wonderful housing, but if you don't have things for people to do, you're not going to keep people in your community." Overall, Maloney said he was appreciative of the community that came out to support the ceremony and looks forward to bringing his own grandchildren to the facility in the future.
"When it comes around to the first football weekend, you're going to have to wait in line in the parking lot to get into this place. It is going to be tremendously successful," he said. "We've come a long way over the past 50 years and it's really impressive, and it had a lot to do with Chancellor Sharp's vision for the community.
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