Waterfront Dreams of Pickleball
By Jeremy Morrison
Pickleball may well be a part of the Port of Pensacola’s future portfolio, but what exactly is it?
“If you haven’t played pickleball, it’s kind of a combination of tennis and ping-pong and badminton, and it is the fastest growing sport in the country,” Travis Peterson explained to the Pensacola City Council on Monday, Nov. 7.
While the details are still being worked out, Mayor Grover Robinson’s administration has been in discussions with a group of local investors and developers who would like to bring a waterfront indoor sports facility to downtown Pensacola. Dubbed Project Pickle, the development involves transforming a warehouse at the port into a facility catering to pickleball and also capable of hosting games and tournament events for sports such as volleyball, basketball and indoor soccer.
As Mayor Robinson told council members following the recent presentation on Project Pickle, the addition of an indoor sports facility at the port would fall in line with the vision of diversifying port tenants — looking beyond more traditional, industrial uses — and that the area of the port in question — warehouse four and the surrounding space — was ideal for the project.
“Most of this area is already there,” Robinson said. “The parking lots are already in place; the building is already there, so you don’t create a big footprint insofar as what it is and the existing space.”
Attorney Scott Remington, among the project presenters, relayed how the warehouse being considered for Project Pickle could conveniently be removed from the port complex and how the new facility would open up access to the downtown waterfront in the area.
“This warehouse is configured so that it can easily be taken outside the security parameter of the port and allow the public easy access to the facility and easy access to the waterfront that’s immediately next to the facility,” Remington said.
The team behind Project Pickle is looking to take the shell of warehouse four, located near the ferry terminal, and transform it into an indoor sports facility boasting 10 pickleball courts inside, with another 10 outdoor courts added outside the warehouse. The courts would be used regularly for pickleball, with the option of repurposing the facility to accommodate other sports as needed.
While Project Pickle’s foundation is built upon pickleball, this proposed facility would be operated with an eye toward hosting larger tournament events for indoor team sports.
“What it would allow us to do is provide day-play for pickleball on a Monday-through-Friday basis, but also configure the warehouse to accommodate basketball, volleyball, indoor soccer and other sports and events,” Remington said.
And with the scope of this project, with the additional outdoor courts, as well as a planned 500-seat outdoor arena, could give it an edge over similar facilities when it comes to attracting tournament events.
“The big benefit here is that it would be one of, if not the largest indoor pickleball facility in the state of Florida,” Remington said. “So, tournaments could guarantee they could schedule and get their tournament played.”
Robert Fabbro, president of Whitesell-Green, Inc. and principal developer of the proposed facility, said that youth sports teams regularly flock to tournament events, where they not only play in the tournament, but also likely spend money in restaurants and hotels. Pensacola, the developer said, could make for a more attractive destination for such events than some of the other spaces hosting such tournaments.
“There are so many facilities that these families go to, and they get there and it’s a giant parking lot in a giant building and there’s nothing to do for the three hours in between the first game and the second game,” Fabbro said. “Whereas here, we have the ferry, we have downtown, we have restaurants. We think that it will be very attractive to coaches that do tournaments out of town — Atlanta, Nashville — because there’s other stuff to do. It’s true sports tourism, to where they come down here and go to beach while they’re having a volleyball tournament or a basketball tournament.”
In addition to hosting sports events, Remington said the facility could also conceivably host other large events, such as Pensacon, which traditionally takes place at the Pensacola Bay Center.
“If you needed a space that was indoors, easily accessible, plenty of parking, heart of downtown, it would easily accommodate that,” he said.
Citing figures provided by the University of West Florida’s Haas Center, Remington also pointed out that during the facility’s first six years, the city should see an estimated $28 million in associated economic impact, and that the facility would generate an expected $253,000 in local taxes.
According to the Project Pickle team’s own internal estimates, this facility could provide a $1.8 million annual sports tourism impact, as well as an initial 200 construction jobs and an eventual 15 to 20 full time jobs.
“Sports tourism is a big business here in the United States,” Peterson said, citing some impressive 2021 figures from Pensacola Sports Association: last year, sports tourism in Escambia County, generated $25 million, 33,065 visitors and 24,804 hotel rooms.
The team proposing this sports facility at the port would be putting about $2 million of private investment into the property. The terms of the lease are still being negotiated, but it would likely be a lengthy one.
“We’re gonna have to have some type of stability to make it work,” Remington said, suggesting that benchmarks would be built into a multi-decade lease.
Amy Miller, who use to oversee operations at the port and now serves as deputy city administrator, said she expected to have a contract in front of city council soon.
“We’re shooting for December, January at the absolute latest,” Miller said.
Once the terms of deal have been agreed upon, the Project Pickle team will begin a due diligence period, ensuring the site is appropriate for the facility.
“I’m not worried about the structure at all, but there may be some materials in there that we have to take out because they’re not a healthy environment,” Fabbro told council members.
City council members, in general, seemed enthused about the prospect of pickleball at the port. Councilwoman Sherri Myers described it as “a great amenity for downtown and this whole regional area” and Councilman Casey Jones called it a “game-changer for Pensacola.”
“Love the idea,” Myers said.
“Just seems like a very exciting endeavor,” concurred Councilman Jared Moore. “I feel a sense of urgency here, let’s chase it, let’s make it happen.”