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Vestavia Hills residents play pickleball at Wald Park. The new indoor Picklr facility hopes to entice many of the area’s residents.

The Picklr, a much-anticipated indoor pickleball complex on U.S. 31 in Vestavia Hills, is nearing completion.

The 28,000-square-foot facility, housed in the former Sprouts Farmers Market, is set to open in March, the owner said. The Vestavia Hills location will be The Picklr’s first in Alabama and will feature 10 courts, a pro shop and a restaurant. It will also host local pickleball leagues, tournaments and professional events.

Pickleball enthusiasts say the new complex can’t open soon enough.

Word of The Picklr coming to Vestavia Hills spread quickly through the pickleball community after the October announcement.

Alli Ammons, one of the area’s top senior players and a sponsor of the Vestavia Hills High School pickleball club team, said The Picklr will help meet the growing demand for courts in Vestavia Hills and attract players from the greater Birmingham area.

“I’m thrilled about it. I’m always looking for dedicated pickleball courts. I am an avid pickleball player and play all over, so I am always searching for courts and, a lot of times, I have to go outside the area to find courts,” Ammons said.

“Courts in Vestavia are few and far between, so it’s great to know that we’re going to have dedicated courts in our area,” she said. “I think it’s been a long time in the works, and I’m just really excited.”

The new Picklr franchise is the result of a public-private partnership between the city and the private development group Altera AIP-Vestavia. The franchise will be owned and operated by Patrick Denney, a real estate developer, Vestavia Hills resident and principal of Altera AIP-Vestavia, and his wife, Shannon.

The partnership agreement includes several economic incentives, such as an initial $300,000 grant from the city and additional payments over 10 years equal to 50% of the sales and non-educational property tax proceeds each year. The incentive agreement covers the entire shopping center, including leased spaces occupied by Chipotle, Jersey Mike’s and Supercuts.

Sprouts vacated the building in late 2018 but continued lease payments, leaving the space vacant for six years. The Denneys said the building stayed empty due to a complex financial arrangement that made subleasing virtually impossible. Patrick Denney said the city of Vestavia Hills had to get involved to make the deal a reality and fill a space that had become a sore spot for the City Council.

“Without those incentives, we would not have been able to do the deal,” he said.

Denney approached partners in Dallas — where pickleball’s popularity has soared in recent years — to purchase the shopping center outright.

“There were a lot of hurdles just to figure out if you could do it or not. It was just too much for just anyone to overcome, and the only way we could do it was to go the acquisition route,” he said.

The site on U.S. 31 in the heart of Vestavia couldn’t be a better location, Shannon Denney said.

The Denneys began researching pickleball franchises after noticing tennis and basketball courts being converted to pickleball courts at their gym in Vestavia Hills. Patrick Denney sensed an opportunity to meet the growing demand for courts, even as he became frustrated with the lack of space to play tennis and basketball.

“Patrick started getting frustrated. He’s like, ‘You know, this is ridiculous. It’s everywhere,’” Shannon Denney said. “Then he started digging into it, and he thought, ‘Somebody’s got to figure this out. We’ve got to figure out a solution to this.’”

Their research led them to The Picklr, a franchise headquartered in Kaysville, Utah, which Shannon Denney said stands out as the best. Since its founding in 2021, The Picklr has expanded to more than 275 locations nationwide.

“We started researching these different pickleball franchises and really, the Picklr was the only one out there that we would even consider,” she said. “It’s just the elite pickleball franchise. There’s nothing else that even compares to it at this point.”

Origins of pickleball

Pickleball was developed by Joel Pritchard, Barney McCallum and Bill Bell, friends from Bainbridge Island, Washington, in 1965. The sport quickly gained popularity in Washington state before gradually spreading nationwide by the early 1990s.

Originally marketed as a sport for seniors, pickleball is now played by people of all ages, including high school students. Ammons said the Vestavia Hills High School club team struggled during its first year to meet the 24-player minimum required for the state tournament. Now, more than 70 students participate.

Ammons said they are negotiating with the Denneys to play home games at The Picklr, but regardless of the location, she is optimistic about the sport’s future.

“I think everybody’s starting to finally catch on and realize that it is a sport that everybody can do,” she said.

“Our goal is just to continue to introduce kids to the sport,” she said. “It’s growing leaps and bounds. It’s just really taking off, and I love it that our youth are so excited about it.”

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Excitement grows for new pickleball complex on US 31