Tom Straus ran a successful vending machine business for 26 years, but he spent the last few years of that stint dreaming about what he would rather be doing.

Straus envisioned a golf range in a rustic setting where he could meld that business with miniature golf and his own franchise of ice cream stores. The combination, resulting in Broadway Driving Range & Miniature Golf, has been a delicious addition to the Depew, N.Y., landscape. Today, Strauss couldn’t be happier.

“I just always thought those things would go well together,” Straus says, “and I think I was right.”

Straus never thought of himself as an avid golfer, but that didn’t stop him from daydreaming about one day owning and operating a golf range. He thought about it every time he drove by a small range on Broadway Road just outside of Buffalo. The little range was tucked away in a rural area next to a horse farm, just on the outskirts of the big city, and not too far from several heavily populated upstate New York towns.

Straus first tried to buy that little range in 1997, two years after it opened. It wasn’t until 2001, though, after he had sold his vending business, that he finally landed the property. By then, the range had been shut down for a year and a half, and Straus faced what many new range owners might consider a major reclamation project.

A Plan in Three Parts
Straus had other ideas. He wasn’t thinking full-scale renovation. His plan was to change as little as possible, embracing the rustic setting and the natural beauty of the place.

“It was a driving range that had been closed for a year and a half, and we brought it back to life,” he says. “Basically, we did it all in-house. We built the [covered tee] shelter and replaced all the mats and really only had to hire someone to do the netting that first year.”

The facility reopened in March 2002, after Straus and his crew had finished refurbishing the clubhouse and pro shop, and added a shelter along the tee line to cover six of the tees. For the first two years, Broadway Driving Range offered the basics—a driving range and a small pro shop to provide the essentials—balls, gloves, tees and other such accessories.

Straus and his employees made up for the lack of amenities by stressing customer service. Though he had two ball washers, he had no automated dispenser, instead preferring personal contact at the main counter, handing the buckets directly to customers.

Meanwhile, Straus was gearing up for the second part of his plan—adding a miniature golf course. He scouted facilities in the Northeast and in Florida, and talked to many range owners who already had miniature golf courses at their facilities.

“I was convinced, talking to a lot of miniature golf builders, that you need a theme, and I was just going to go with a beautifully landscaped theme,” Straus says.

And that brings us to the barn. Built in 1932 (Straus looked it up in local town records), the old barn has long been a landmark on the property. Straus never considered tearing the barn down. Instead, he recast the barn as the centerpiece of his miniature golf course, and made it a prominent feature behind the tee line.

“I grew up in the city,” the Buffalo native recalls with a laugh. “I always wanted a barn.”

The old edifice does have a certain charm, and lends flavor to the pleasant, rural atmosphere that makes Broadway a great getaway for golfers, and now families, too. Straus slapped a new green metal roof on the barn to match the new roofing on the other buildings on the property, and suddenly his theme was emerging on its own. Straus hired Harris Miniature Golf of Wildwood, N.J. to assist with the design.

“It dawned on me one day that what we should do is just create an old farm scene, and that’s what we did,” says Straus, who began collecting antique farm equipment to spread around the facility. The driving range has five vintage tractors on the property, including one from the 1930s. There are hay wagons on display, too.

The barn, incidentally, now houses only hand equipment. Since it’s virtually a part of the miniature golf course, they don’t roll the heavy machinery in and out of there anymore.

The 18-hole miniature course opened in June 2004 and immediately took the entire facility to a new level as a recreational destination for locals of all ages and interests.

“The miniature golf started bringing us more family business,” Straus says.

Families didn’t go away disappointed, either. Six ponds and a 10-foot waterfall highlight the course. Existing trees are built into the layout, and rock outcroppings make the course fun for kids and adults.

Straus’s plan to keep the natural setting, and to incorporate the old barn and existing trees into his original design, won him friends in the local township government, too. Some may have feared his additions would include garish signs and bright lights, but Straus kept it simple, working with what he had on the farm.

“Quite honestly, people are raving about the property and what we’ve done here,” Straus adds, “especially on the miniature golf side. Our business really picked up when we added that.”

The third part of Straus’s plan was designed to bring even more business to Broadway. Tying in with the farm theme, Green Acres Ice Cream opened across the parking lot from the clubhouse in April of this year.

Dishing It Out
Straus was no stranger to ice cream stores. When he opened Green Acres, he already had two other such stores in the greater Buffalo area, including the local favorite Route 20 Ice Cream in Orchard Park. That store is themed like a 1950s gas station, with antique gas pumps and a 1947 Studebaker tow truck on display.

The ice cream shops were part of Straus’ original Buffalo Crown Vending Inc., the corporate umbrella under which he operated his vending business and the ice cream stores. Today, the ice cream stores and Broadway Driving Range & Miniature Golf are still under that corporate title, and the offices are now in the clubhouse at the range. Kim Bundschuh, who has been vice president of the company since 1991, also works at the range.

Despite its unique co-location with the golf range, Green Acres Ice Cream fits in with the other ice cream stores in the company. The shop features a hay wagon and old milk cans as part of the farm theme, and they offer the same 50 flavors of ice cream products in all their stores, including the popular Wow Cow—a 12-calorie, fat-free brand offered in two different flavors every week. Straus says business started slowly at Green Acres last April but picked up during the summer. He has relied mostly on word-of-mouth advertising from happy customers. The business, which attracts many regulars who come to the facility just for the ice cream, has steadily grown.

There’s a natural synergy with the miniature golf, too. A hole-in-one on certain holes on the course earns free ice cream. But Straus says many customers just make it a regular part of their visit to play miniature golf and then venture over to the ice cream shop.

“The driving range, miniature golf and ice cream stand feed off each other, especially the miniature golf and ice cream,” he says. “They really go hand-in-hand. We consider this a family entertainment complex, and now it’s clearly a destination for families.”

Broadway Driving Range & Miniature Golf draws from the villages and small towns in the western upstate area, including Lancaster, West Seneca, Cheektowaga, Orchard Park, Elma and Depew. The facility also attracts customers from Buffalo, only four miles away. Broadway Road is a major thoroughfare, but Straus says his location has been a mixed blessing thus far.

When the facility first opened in 2001, Broadway Road was undergoing major renovation. The construction, with lanes closed for heavy work, hampered business. Straus combated the problem with coupons in local mailers and clipper magazines, and a little bit of advertising in local newspapers. Mostly, he just gritted his teeth and waited it out.

“Those first three years we dealt with some severe road construction and it was a real headache,” he recalls. “They completely redid the road and it was a nightmare for a new business. But as time went on, the lane restrictions were less and less, and now that it’s complete, it’s terrific.”

Straus’ only other problem during construction is one familiar to many range owners—netting. A novice to the business, Strauss was surprised by cost and effort required to install the 50-foot netting that keeps balls off the adjacent horse farm.

Though the poles were already in place, purchasing and installation still cost $18,000. Fortunately, he now knows, netting generally only needs replacement every 10 years.

The facility still loses some range balls over the netting, and Straus says that’s another important factor for new range owners. He advises keeping a large inventory of balls so you’re not forced to pick them up all the time.

“You don’t want to be out there picking up 500 balls,” Straus explains. “You want to pick up tens of thousands. We keep over 25,000 and we buy new range balls every year.”

Corralling More Business
At a facility where ice cream and miniature golf are primary draws, it’s not surprising that Broadway earns significant income from parties and other social functions. The facility has hosted everything from corporate outings and birthday parties to wedding showers and family reunions.

Straus enhanced those opportunities by adding a covered picnic area last spring. The area can accommodate more than 100 people. This past summer, Broadway hosted 125 events, including a couple of charity fundraisers. The new shelter is adjacent to the facility’s Party Corral, a 7,000-square-foot fenced-in area next to the miniature golf, ideal for children’s parties but also a great venue for any group.

Broadway offers several games especially for kids—horseshoes, golfing, soccer and a simulated cow-milking contest that uses a cutout of a cow with a big pail of white-colored water leading to the udder. Contestants milk the contraption to win prizes.

“Everyone gets a real kick out of it,” says Straus.

The kids’ golf game consists of hitting Velcro balls onto a sticky mat, and the soccer game involves kicking a ball past a simulated goalkeeper into a net. All the games are portable and easy to set up.

A local pizzeria provides food for the large functions, and, of course, there’s dessert available at the ice cream shop. Now, Straus is thinking about adding another building next to Green Acres.

“I’ve still got 600 square feet vacant there, and I’ve already got the parking lot,” he says. “I think that we’re going to turn that into a country store.”

Like so much of the rest of Broadway Driving Range & Miniature Golf, it sounds perfect.