The city of Poulsbo is moving forward with a feasibility study into a public-private partnership that could convert an empty Office Max building into a regional pickleball center.
Poulsbo parks and recreation director Jeff Ozimek and Bainbridge Island Pickleball spokesperson Clay Roberts presented the renovation plan for a site in the Olhava commercial district on the west side of Poulsbo to Mayor Becky Erickson and city council members Wednesday evening.
“What’s being proposed is a community-gathering space that primarily caters to pickleball, but is so much more," Ozimek said.
Bainbridge Island is regarded as the birthplace for pickleball , which, according to Roberts, is played by 36.5 million people in America. Joel Pritchard, a former state lieutenant governor and U.S. representative, invented the sport with friends Bill Bell and Barney McCallum on an old badminton court in 1965.
It's a sport, Roberts said, that “allows 8-year-olds to play with 80-year-olds, that has as many women as it has men playing, that is welcoming for everybody.”
Kitsap's pickleball history: Barney McCallum, Bainbridge's pickleball pioneer
There are numerous outdoor pickleball courts around Kitsap County, but the weather in the Pacific Northwest often hampers play in the wet months. The creation of an indoor facility just miles from where the sport began is a worthy pursuit, Roberts stated, especially since Poulsbo has a vacant building needing a tenant.
“If we designed it ourselves for pickleball, we wouldn’t have designed it much differently," Roberts said.
Council members viewed a potential design plan for the facility, at 21800 Market Place NW: 10 total courts, six indoor and four outdoor, with additional space for a kitchen/dining area/bar/indoor game area and an outdoor patio area. The focus would be finalizing the indoor courts first.
In addition to pickleball leagues, lessons, tournaments, clinics and after-school programs for kids, Roberts envisions the facility being available for social events, such as corporate get-togethers and birthday parties.
“It’s not simply pickleball," Roberts said.
Pitched as a public-private partnership, Roberts said local pickleball community groups and supporters would assist in fundraising efforts for the facility renovation, while the city and parks department would be responsible for staffing and venue operation. Ozimek said the next move would be doing a "deeper drive" into the financials, including private fundraising and advertising/sponsorship opportunities, and lease particulars with the owner of the building.
Desiring more information in the coming months, Erickson and council members appeared intrigued by the potential to make Poulsbo a pickleball destination.
“It’s the creation of a recreational hub for the entire greater community of Kitsap," Erickson said.
The council's consideration of a regional pickleball facility comes on the heels of progress made into the city's timeline for construction of a multi-use recreation facility — the Poulsbo Event and Recreation Center, or PERC — in the College Marketplace area near Olympic College's campus.
In February, the city requested design and construction proposals for Phase 1 of the PERC project , which involves the creation of two multi-use fields and surrounding outdoor park features. The city expects to award the design contract this week. Design completion and permitting is targeted for February of 2025 and awarding the construction contract is targeted for the spring of 2025.
More background: Poulsbo mulls new outdoor sports complex with soccer field and more
Future PERC projects, which require addition feasibility studies, would include the construction of an event and recreation building (Phase 2) and an outdoor recreation pool (Phase 3). The city estimates the cost of PERC Phase 1 at $11.7 million, with the Kitsap Public Facilities District partnering to provide nearly $8 million in funding.
This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: A regionwide, indoor, pickleball facility could find a home in Poulsbo
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