This Palm Beach County city is betting on pickleball's popularity to make it 'a destination'
GREENACRES — A private pickleball complex will do more for Greenacres than redevelop 5 abandoned acres along Haverhill Road, Mayor Joel Flores said.
"This makes us a destination," Flores said after the City Commission voted Feb. 5 to approve The Pickleball Club's plans for a 19-court complex. "It will be a place that people beyond Greenacres will come and visit."
Friendly to all ages, pickleball is a mix of tennis, table tennis and badminton and is considered one of the fastest-growing sports in the United States. Cities across Palm Beach County have been struggling to keep up with the demand for courts and have moved to build more of them.
That's in part what led the Sarasota-based company to Greenacres, where it will build a 42,000 square-foot complex that will feature 16 indoor and three outdoor courts, as well as a mezzanine with a café and two boccie courts.
Flores said the project is a step toward the city's goal of redeveloping outdated properties and abandoned lots to spur economic growth.
"It helps our economic development," Flores said. "It brings a different offering to the community, so the idea is that you can work, live and play."
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The Pickleball Club's complex will sit at Haverhill Road and Nautica Isles Boulevard, where a religious school was proposed before the COVID pandemic.
Founded in 2019 by CEO Brian McCarthy and Matt Gordon, the company develops and operates private, indoor pickleball facilities with a membership system. The club will also offer programs for youths, veterans and first responders.
The company opened the first pickleball center last year in Sarasota. In 2022, it announced plans to spend $180 million to build 15 facilities across Florida. Greenacres is its ninth announced location and its first South Florida site. Facilities in St. Lucie West and Village Park are under construction, and others are planned in Fort Meyers, Bonita Springs and Orlando.
The company is scheduled to break ground in Greenacres by the end of the year and expects to open during the summer of 2025. The 42,000 square-feet pickleball center will feature:
16 indoor pickleball courts
Three covered outdoor courts
Two bocce ball courts
A 3,850-square-foot players’ lounge featuring a pro shop and a café
184 parking spaces
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Why did The Pickleball Club consider Greenacres a 'superb' location?
Flores said the project was a city-led effort to bring more commercial activity to Greenacres, which is mostly built out with low-density, single-family homes. Greenacres had previously identified the land as a potential site for new commercial activity. It had houses built in 1965 and 1977 and two undeveloped parcels that had remained vacant.
The city staff reached out to the land's owner last year and connected them with McCarthy's team, which entered a contract to buy the land last October.
"We probably wouldn't be here without your staff," McCarthy told the council Feb. 5. "This has been the best experience I've ever had anywhere in the country of developing a commercial project."
Greenacres is a "superb" location because it has over 1 million people living within a 25-minute average drive from where the pickleball facility is planned, McCarthy said in a news release.
Flores said he was pleased Greenacres didn't have to spend one public dollar to bring The Pickleball Club to the city.
"This is a private company who is coming in, making an investment and meeting the needs of the community," he said.
Greenacres no stranger to South Florida's pickleball craze
Over the last five years, pickleball has become increasingly popular in Greenacres, Flores said.
The city has four permanent pickleball courts in Freedom Park on Pinehurst Drive, which has become one of the most popular sites for families to play in western Palm Beach County. The city built the first two courts five years ago and added two more in 2019, given the high demand from residents.
The South Florida heat and rain, however, kept some people from playing on the outdoor courts, Flores said. So last November, the city opted to use the indoor basketball courts in its community center as temporary playing sites, making them available only during school hours and before the youth athletic programs.
Flores said the new facility will make Greenacres a pickleball destination in Palm Beach County for years to come and give residents a family-friendly activity to enjoy inside the city.
"Pickleball is a very diverse sport," Flores said. "When you have something that makes the community rally together, it's just another building point for the city. This is a win-win for everybody."
Valentina Palm covers Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Greenacres, Palm Springs and other western communities in Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post. Email her at vpalm@pbpost.com and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @ValenPalmB. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: South Florida city counting on pickleball's popularity to fuel growth
