‘Landmark’ pickleball complex proposed in CT city
With Cromwell, West Hartford and Glastonbury recently adding pickleball courts, a developer is proposing a large, privately operated complex in Middletown.
The proposed Pickleball Park would have a mix of indoor and outdoor courts for what fitness magazines call the fastest-growing sport in the country.
“Pickleball Park is planned as a 20-court dedicated pickleball recreational facility,” according to a promotional flier provided to Middletown’s Planning and Zoning Commission. “The park will include 12 indoor courts, a clubhouse with a social area, event space, day care and locker rooms.”
In addition, there will be outdoor courts with protection from the weather.
“Eight additional courts will be under a translucent fabric roof, enabling outdoors rain-free play that will be 15 degrees cooler than the hot summer day and blinding sunshine of unprotected outdoor play,” according to the application from Middletown-based Tall Properties LLC, which is applying for a zoning permit for the project.
The Planning and Zoning Commission will conduct a hearing Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the common council chamber at city hall. The session can also be viewed remotely.
Leonard Leibenhaut, a principal in Centerpoint Management Co., is listed on town zoning forms as the representative of Tall Properties. Reached at his office Monday, he confirmed that his company is the applicant, but declined further comment.
Tall Properties is proposing the complex for a property along Centerpoint Drive between Industrial Park Road and I-91. The project would include a building of about 42,200 square feet, and another 18,200 square feet of space that would get a roof but wouldn’t be enclosed.
Citing the extensive facilities and the central Connecticut location near the juncture of Route 9 and I-91, the company envisions its facility as a regional draw.
“The 360-degree of dense population sets the market reach as the ideal destination for the surging market of pickleball players to meet up and find available court time 365 days a year,” according to Tall Properties’ flier.
This summer, a 28-court pickleball facility opened in the Stamford Town Center in Fairfield County, but that is one of the few indoor centers in Connecticut. Most municipally run facilities are outdoors only, and chiefly intended for town residents.
Glastonbury, for instance, opened four pickleball courts in July at the Riverfront Community Center, and plans a dedication ceremony with state representatives and other speakers Sept. 19. West Hartford, Cromwell, Southington and South Windsor are among the dozens of other communities that have either built new outdoor courts or restriped tennis courts for the new use.
Pickleheads, an organization that maintains a nationwide directory of pickleball courts, reports that a total of 138 public, free-to-use courts are available in about 65 towns and cities across Connecticut. That doesn’t cover private pay-to-play facilities like the one at the Stamford mall, and won’t include another private, indoor project being proposed by the company that remodeled the former Marriott hotel in Farmington into apartments.
Having 20 courts will make the Middletown facility a landmark, according to Tall Properties.
“It will enable the hosting of the Pickleball Masters, and the Nutmeg Tournaments, which require 20 courts,” the company said. “The extraordinary growth of pickleball has challenged communities to meet the demand for more and more courts.”
Pickleheads reports that there are now public courts in all of the 50 states along with Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Island and Washington, D.C. Beyond the 138 in Connecticut, New England has 42 in Rhode Island, 94 in Vermont, 349 in Massachusetts, 142 in Maine and 87 in New Hampshire.
