Nation's largest privately-owned indoor pickleball facility coming to Colorado

Pickleball is coming to the mall.

Peak Pickleball, a 24-court complex that its owner says will be the nation’s largest privately owned, indoor pickleball facility, will take over the vacant Burlington department store at the Chapel Hills Mall, northeast of Academy and Briargate boulevards in northern Colorado Springs.

Monument resident Scott Wilson, a former Dillon restaurateur and owner of an ATV and snowmobile rental company in Frisco, said he’s targeting an early fall opening for the facility.

The Burlington store, at 1730 Briargate Blvd., covers 80,380 square feet on two levels, El Paso County Assessor’s Office records show. New Jersey-based Burlington closed the store in 2020 and reopened the following year in a nearby shopping center southwest of Academy and Briargate.

Permits were pulled in April and May for initial demolition work inside the old Burlington store, according to Pikes Peak Regional Building Department records. The store is owned by a third-party limited liability company and not by a New York group that owns the rest of the mall.

Construction of pickleball courts will take place over the next few months, Wilson said. New lighting to accommodate pickleball players, new restrooms, upgrades to the heating, ventilating and cooling system and removal of a dropped ceiling will be among additional improvements to the space. The store’s remodeling will create ceiling heights of 22 feet — more than high enough to accommodate pickleball players, he said.

The remodeling cost will be “over $1 million,” Wilson added.

As planned, Peak Pickleball would have 11 courts on the upper level of the former Burlington store and 13 on its lower level, Wilson said. Four championship-sized courts and a private, walled-in court that could be used for lessons or other gatherings would be part of the mix, he said.

In addition to the 24 courts, there will be two large “dink” courts for warming up.

Peak Pickleball will offer memberships for players, but walk-ins also will be welcome, Wilson said. As an amenity for members, the complex will have a game room with ping pong, pool and pinball machines, he said.

It also will have another area for corporate parties and gatherings, along with a separate, fenced-off area adjacent to courts that could be rented by businesses and individual groups.

Although there will be player dressing rooms, the complex won’t have locker rooms or showers, Wilson said.

Likewise, Peak Pickleball won’t have concessions or sell alcohol. Instead, Wilson said he wants to encourage players to patronize the mall’s restaurants and food vendors.

“My desire is to be very community friendly and kind to the mall; we want a great relationship with the mall,” Wilson said.

“So we are not putting that stuff in. We want to encourage people to go to the food court, use the amenities that are there in the mall. We want to be a part of the mall, we want to encourage the mall. We think it’s a great location. We think this is something great that can fill that space that’s been empty for so long.”

The Burlington space and the Chapel Hills Mall were attractive because of their location on Colorado Springs’ fast growing north side, Wilson said. The mall is near Interstate 25 and pickleball players can reach the retail center from across the Springs’ metro area, he said. Free parking also will be available in the mall’s parking lot.

The addition of the pickleball complex would be another major change at the Chapel Hills Mall.

Opened in 1982, Chapel Hills — like other malls nationwide — has seen brick-and-mortar retailers relocate, downsize or close altogether as consumer habits have changed and they’ve gravitated to Amazon and other online shopping sites.

Sears, once a mall anchor, closed at the Chapel Hills Mall in early 2019. Evergreen Devco, an Arizona-based real estate developer with an office in Denver, purchased the Sears space two years later and razed it to make way for the 300-unit Outlook Briargate apartment complex.

“Big retailers aren’t really going back into huge spaces like that,” Wilson said of the Burlington store.

Pickleball, invented in 1965, combines elements of tennis, badminton and pingpong. Now with 13.6 million players nationwide, pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in America, according to the suburban Phoenix-based USA Pickleball Association, citing figures from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association research group.

The Pikes Peak Pickleball Association’s website lists a dozen outdoor locations with pickleball courts and nine indoor sites.

Wilson said he sold his restaurant and ATV and snowmobile rental businesses a few years before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. He said he also served as a pastor for 35 years, and now operates a nonprofit ministry.

“I’m hoping that people will see the opportunity to come and play pickleball at the mall, then they’ll go, while I’m here, I’ll slip into Dillard’s or Macy’s or go play some Glow Golf or we’ll play late and go see a movie,” Wilson said of Chapel Hills Mall stores and attractions.

“My heart and my passion is to be a part of the community, to encourage the community to build good relationships.

“As a former pastor,” he added, “I want to build a place where people feel welcome and accepted.”

Ed Beane, general manager of Chapel Hills, which is owned by New York-based Namdar Realty, said he welcomes the addition of Peak Pickleball and expects it to be another positive addition for the mall. The new Outlook apartment complex on the old Sears site has hundreds of residents who are potential mall shoppers and restaurant-goers.

“This attracts all ages,” Beane said. “So, now I’m going to get everybody wanting to come to the mall and play pickleball.”