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Tampa Bay Pickleball Academy has been approved to open an indoor facility in a warehouse off Gateway Boulevard in west Lakeland.
Lakeland’s Planning & Zoning Board on Tuesday approved a minor change in the use of the property at 5201 Gateway Blvd., just off County Line Road, to allow for:
- Six indoor pickleball courts.
- Vending machines for non-alcoholic drinks and snacks.
- The construction of a second bathroom.
- 30 parking spaces for patrons.
Jacob Schner with The Ruthvens Inc., which owns the warehouse, confirmed Tampa Bay Pickleball Academy as the owner of the company. Its website lists a Lakeland location on Gateway as “coming soon.”
The website shows daily play on their courts runs $10.75, with private court rental for 90 minutes costing $40-$50.
Discerning: “We have been very discerning on the group and the location that we were willing to work with on a project like this — and a lot of that’s based on our experience with sports facilities in our warehouses over the decades,” Brandon Clark , president of The Ruthvens, told the board at the Tuesday morning meeting.
“When this particular space opened up, the location, the building, the way the building sits in that park, and the adjacent tenants created a unique situation and set of circumstances that made us feel very comfortable with this use of this building,” Clark added.
WHACK! Todd Vargo, Lakeland Community and Economic Development Department senior planner, said one of the main issues with pickleball is the loud, sharp noise the paddles make when hitting the ball.
Vargo said having the courts indoors and the fact that there are no residential neighbors negates that concern. There are three tenants in the industrial park, but officials said the heaviest use would be in the evenings and on weekends, when the tenants are not present.
The Planning & Zoning Board’s vote on the zoning change was 6-0.
The vote was final. Vargo said the facility would now become the first indoor pickleball courts in Polk County.
A pickleball family: Eric Klaus, 51, and his sons Ben and Kennedy founded Tampa Bay Pickleball Academy. They’ve already been doing prep work on the Lakeland warehouse space and expect to open in mid- to late-May.
“It takes a week to 10 days to put the courts in,” the older Klaus said.
“We’re super excited to come in to the Lakeland community,” he added. “We’ve built a big community of players — it’s a pickleball family. We’ve been talking to a bunch of (Lakeland players) for the last year who’ve said ‘When are you going to come to Lakeland?’ It’s been a big target of ours for a while.”
Klaus said they expect to be busy. Their Oldsmar location is filled any time the doors are open — 5 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week.
“It’s crazy, but it’s been a blessing,” he said.
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