As City Park continues to study an ambitious proposal from a private developer to overhaul its storm-battered golf complex between Interstate 610 and Filmore Avenue, officials are ready to go it alone on a smaller version of the game.

Construction is slated to start in March on a $1.2 million miniature golf complex along Victory Avenue across from Storyland and the popular children's amusement park.

Park administrators say the attraction will provide a new family entertainment alternative for southeast Louisiana, a veritable desert for mini-golf fans.

"We think we'll be offering something that will fill a void, particularly for teenagers," said John Hopper, the park's director of development.

"For kids, the appeal of Storyland and the amusement park kind of tops out when you reach a certain age. And not to say that little ones can't play miniature golf, but it's also the kind of thing you can take a date to."

The park will build the project in two, 18-hole phases.

The first step -- which includes infrastructure work and a small entrance building with a concessions area and restrooms -- carries a price tag of about $1 million. Officials hope to complete construction by year's end.

The second phase, which will add a second 18-hole course, will cost only $200,000. Phase two does not have a projected start date.

Hopper said while the park has enough cash in its capital projects account to build the first course, officials hope to collect enough sponsorships between now and the spring to cover the costs.

To date, he said City Park has received nine pledges of $25,000 each to sponsor holes from individuals and local firms. Sponsors will be announced when work starts in March.

Hopper said the fund-raising effort for the golf project has produced a range of responses.

"We're finding that when we go to donors about this, some of them look at you like you have three heads," he said. "Others smile, they get all excited and say, 'I just love miniature golf!' Many older types like me have fond memories of playing the game."

This will be the third time the park has offered miniature golf.

A course opened in the 1920s and another debuted in 1967 along Marconi Drive. That attraction closed more than two decades ago.

Based on projections, park officials are expecting 24,000 rounds of golf to be played annually.

"We think it will be very popular," Hopper said. "Kids individually will enjoy it and it also offers a fun way for children to show up their parents by getting a hole-in-one when dad can't."

The mini-golf facility will replace a parking lot now filled with trailers where park staffers have been housed since Hurricane Katrina as well as several tennis courts.

The trailers are scheduled to be removed in February after park employees move into a new, $3.8 million administration building on Palm Drive. The old structure, which was swamped on the same site by floodwaters in 2005, was rebuilt with FEMA dollars.

Plans call for the tennis courts to be demolished in March when the park's new $3.5 million complex opens along Marconi Drive north of Interstate 610.

While many government agencies were forced to work out of temporary housing after Katrina's floods, most FEMA trailers are gone by now.

More than five years after the storm, City Park, which was forced to haggle with FEMA over whether a new administrative building was needed, is one of the few exceptions.

The new, two-story structure is located near the park's western edge, south of Interstate 610. It has more than 13,000 square feet, 32 offices, three meeting rooms and work space for volunteers.

Frank Donze can be reached at fdonze@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3328.

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