AUSTIN, Texas — A beloved Austin business has another new lease on life.
Ahead of its current lease ending on Sept. 30, 2024, Peter Pan Mini-Golf says its lease has been extended through March 31, 2025.
Even with the current lease extension, officials with the business say they will continue to negotiate a longer-term, multi-year lease with the landowner.
The battle to preserve Peter Pan Mini Golf
In August 2023, KVUE reported that the 76-year-old golf course had a lease with the Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD). The TJJD acts as a trustee for the trust that controls the land, with the owners of the mini-golf business renting out the property.
The following month, a petition was launched to preserve Peter Pan Mini Golf, with organizers hoping to make it a historic landmark. Margaret Dismukes Massad and her husband spoke before the Historic Landmark Commission, highlighting their efforts to keep the business where it is, noting the outpouring of support from the community.
Dismukes Massad, the owner of Peter Pan Mini-Golf, said Austin Mayor Kirk Watson helped facilitate the initial 6-month lease extension with the TJJD. Dismukes Massad's father started the business alongside his brothers in 1948 and fought to keep the business in the family.
Watson has said in the past that he wants to help Peter Pan Mini Golf find a long-term solution.
"Peter Pan is an important piece of Austin, and I was happy to help them work with the state officials to get some certainty, at least for now, with their lease And we intend to continue that conversation in the hope of getting a long-term solution for Peter Pan," Watson wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, in December 2023.