Drive out Career Center Road past the Kankakee Area Career Center and you will see it on the west side: a low brick clubhouse with the kind of wide, sloped roofline that used to signal something upscale in the late 1970s. The windows have been dark since 2008. For most of the past eighteen years, that building has just sat there, a landmark mostly known for being empty.
That is changing, but maybe not in the way the headlines have made it sound. The clubhouse is coming back. The golf course that used to surround it is not part of the plan. Understanding the difference between those two facts is the whole story.
Two Courses, One Owner, One Closure
As the Daily Journal reported, Bon Vivant wasn't a single golf course. It was two: the Championship Course, designed by Ray Didier and opened in 1978, and the North Course, designed by David Esler and opened in 1997. Together they made Bon Vivant a 36-hole facility, the kind of scale that made it one of the more talked-about golf destinations in this part of Illinois for a stretch. The whole thing was the project of Merlin Karlock, a local banker who built it and ran it until the club closed in 2008.
After that, the fairways went quiet and the clubhouse went dark. Nobody bought it, nobody tore it down, and nobody found a new use for it. It just aged in place along a road that, at the time, saw a fraction of the traffic it carries today.
Eighteen Acres, Not Thirty-Six Holes
Here is where the story gets specific in a way that matters if you actually live near it. In April 2026, the village of Bourbonnais annexed roughly 18 acres of the former Bon Vivant property, clearing the way for a zoning change that had already been approved the previous September. That 18-acre parcel covers the clubhouse and the ground immediately around it. It does not cover the rest of what was once a 36-hole golf operation.
Before the annexation, the land sat in unincorporated Kankakee County, outside the village's zoning authority entirely. Bringing it into the village was the step that let Bourbonnais approve what comes next for that specific footprint. But a 36-hole golf facility runs to hundreds of acres, and this deal touches only the clubhouse parcel. The rest of the old course, the land that used to be fairways and greens, isn't part of this transaction. It is still sitting there, still outside this decision, still unresolved.
That distinction is easy to miss if you only catch the headline. "Bon Vivant is coming back" sounds like the whole property found a second life. What actually happened is narrower and, honestly, more interesting: one building on one corner of a much larger site found a buyer, while the land around it stays an open question.
Who's Actually Behind It
The buyer is Travis Meils, owner of Alpha Elite Ventures, LLC. Meils isn't a golf operator. According to testimony he gave to the Bourbonnais Planning Commission in February 2026, he has spent more than 20 years in event planning and coordinates over 1,000 events a year. The plan for the clubhouse is a banquet and event venue built for weddings, with capacity for 300 to 400 guests.
Mayor Jeff Keast described the plan to the Daily Journal in April:
"They're going to be a wedding venue, between 300 and 400 people at events there. They're talking about a restaurant. It's a great addition to the village, and quite frankly, it's a new chapter for the village of Bourbonnais."
No opening date has been set publicly as of this writing, and there is no confirmed name or menu for the restaurant piece Keast referenced. What is confirmed is the zoning and the annexation, which together clear the legal path for the clubhouse to reopen as an event space rather than a golf amenity.
Why the Village Wanted This Land Now
The Bon Vivant annexation didn't happen in isolation. On the same day, the village also annexed the Kankakee Area Career Center, a 20.2-acre property sitting directly across the road from the old clubhouse. The reason was procedural: Illinois law requires land inside a Tax Increment Financing district to be contiguous, meaning the parcels have to touch or share a border. Annexing the Career Center made the two properties adjacent inside village limits, which is what allows Bourbonnais to explore creating a TIF district covering both. As part of that arrangement, the village has agreed to provide the Career Center $5,000 annually or 15 percent of the TIF increment, whichever is higher.
None of that is dramatic on its own, but it tells you something real: this isn't a one-off building sale. It's the opening move in a broader plan for that stretch of road, one the village is actively shaping right now rather than one it has already finished.
Career Center Road has also been getting busier since the Bourbonnais Parkway exit off Interstate 57 opened, enough that the village has been planning a $8.4 million widening of 1.5 miles of the road, with construction expected to begin this year and wrap by fall 2028. A quiet two-lane road built for a defunct golf club is turning into a corridor the village is actively engineering for more traffic and more use.
The Part That's Still Being Written
This is the piece that matters most if you live nearby and want more than a headline. On August 27, 2026, the village held an open house on the Career Center Road Subarea Plan, part of a broader initiative the village is calling Imagine Bourbonnais. The plan covers land use, transportation, and community character for the corridor, and it is the first update to that area's future land use plan since 2019. The village is also collecting input through an online survey for residents who couldn't attend in person.
In other words, the fate of the old fairways, and everything else that might eventually fill in around the reopened clubhouse, is not settled. It's being decided through a public process that is happening this fall, not something that already got locked in behind closed doors.
Why This Is Worth Tracking
If you've lived in Bourbonnais long enough to remember Bon Vivant as a working golf club, the reopening of the clubhouse will feel like closure. In a narrow sense, it is. But the interesting part of this story isn't the wedding venue. It's that the village is using this moment, a landmark finally finding a buyer after 18 years, to open up a much bigger conversation about what the rest of that corridor becomes. The clubhouse deal is done. The corridor plan is not, and residents who show up to the next round of input, or fill out the survey, have more influence over what fills in around it than the "Bon Vivant is back" headline suggests.
For those of us who follow Bourbonnais closely, that's the detail worth holding onto: the building found its second act, but the land around it is still a draft.
If you're curious about what's happening in other pockets of Bourbonnais or want a local read on how changes like this tend to ripple through the surrounding area over time, Leanne Provost keeps a close eye on the village's growth and is always happy to talk through what she's seeing on the ground.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
