Puttshack mini golf set to open at Skokie’s Old Orchard mall.

A high-tech mini golf experience is scheduled to putt its way into Westfield Old Orchard Shopping Center in Skokie as mall officials look to attract consumers in an evolving business environment.

Last month, Westfield Old Orchard announced Puttshack is set to open in 2024 inside the space previously occupied by the Lord & Taylor department store.

Puttshack, which offers customers a glammed-up mini golf experience with technology and lights, is set to encompass more than 30,000 square feet over two floors with four nine-hole interactive mini golf courses in which the technology keeps track of players’ scores, according to an Old Orchard statement.

Puttshack players are also expected to have options for dining and drinks.

“We are really excited to see what they create in their kitchen,” Old Orchard Senior General Manager Serge Khalimsky said. “It should be a full restaurant.”

Old Orchard will host the second Puttshack in the Chicago area, as one location has already opened at Oakbrook Center. There are nine locations nationwide.

“Puttshack’s rapid growth and expansion of our one-of-a-kind mini-golf concept has been exciting to see, and we are thrilled to continue and take this next step toward opening in Skokie,” Puttshack President Dave Diamond said in a statement. “Having lived in Evanston for 15 years, I frequently visited Old Orchard with my family and we are confident the Skokie outpost will serve as the ideal destination for Chicagoland’s residents and visitors to gather for family outings, date nights and evenings out with friends and colleagues.”

Khalimsky is optimistic Puttshack will draw people to the shopping center, owned by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield.

“They have put together a slick and attractive product,” he said. “I think our consumer is looking for other reasons to come and just really filling the need of being a place for people to gather and have fun and not just be a shopping center. In my mind our future is multi-dimensional.”

Khalimsky believes Puttshack will cater to all audiences, with its later hours appropriate for people going out on dates, while anticipating people of all ages coming in throughout the day. It may also be used for private parties and corporate events.

Old Orchard, like many shopping centers, is experimenting with ways to lure customers into the mall and pull them away from e-commerce. Khalimsky said he wants to see people socializing at the mall, not just shopping.

“We are diversifying our merchandising so that the future is more multi-dimensional for us in terms of the reasons to come to Old Orchard. It is not just for shopping,” Khalimsky said. “In our industry we have seen the longer that you can increase dwell time and visits to the center for differentiating reasons, the more ability you have for people to explore the merchandise you have in terms of retail and spend their time and hard-earned money.”

The Puttshack addition comes as the store lineup has changed at Old Orchard. The large Bloomingdale’s department store was re placed by a smaller-concept Bloomie’s store, and a Barnes & Noble bookstore reopened.

Khalimsky did not rule out further adaptions to the retailer lineup at the mall that opened in 1956.

“We are always talking to new concepts and emerging brands on different uses,” he said. “The more that we can identify that mix with our retail and the future redevelopments we have at the site, it only makes us better and more multidimensional in the future.”

As part of an overall $100 million renovation and makeover of the popular shopping center, Westfield announced last year it planned to replace the big box Bloomingdale’s with apartments, among other uses.

“We are still in the planning stages but we are hoping to kick that off in the next 24 months,” Khalimsky said.

On another diversification front, plans were revealed earlier this year that a health care building might be part of the mall. However, nothing is finalized, according to Khalimsky.

“I don’t think anything is set in stone in terms of how many square feet it will be and which health care partner will be part of that future use,” he said.