CLEVELAND — Sports bring people together and create community pride, and that's what leaders hope happens with Cleveland’s first pickleball center.
The first dedicated pickleball center in Cleveland opened its doors in the city's Bellaire-Puritas neighborhood Friday.
“This is very exciting, I think it's a really good growing sport and the community will love it,” said Pickleball player Andy Sim.
Neighbors in the area, like Tara Murph,y are excited to see the once-abandoned warehouse turned into something useful for the community.
“This is bringing in new business, new life, new people from the suburbs who may not know all the amazing people that we have that do live in this area and can come in and play,” said Murphy.
The warehouse sat vacant on Crossburn Avenue for more than 30 years and became an eyesore in the community. So, Cleveland City Council member Brian Kazy said he was shocked when a real estate developer expressed interest in purchasing the building.
“There was no roof. There were trees growing through from the ground. There was garbage everywhere, and it was used as a homeless encampment for people at one time," Kazy said
The developer, Robert Euerle, received a $100,000 economic assistance grant from the city to help finance the estimated $1 million building renovations.
Originally, the new owners had no intentions of converting the building into a pickleball facility. However, seeing the need for more recreational sports in the area, they built 10 pickleball courts in the 35,000-square-foot building.
"We don't even know what pickleball is here in Cleveland, Ohio, but we're going to take the market by storm,” said Euerle.
They plan to host tournaments and corporate events. Plus, players will be able to sign up for a membership, giving people a chance to meet others with one thing in common: their love for pickleball.
“All the people that I met that do play pickleball are super nice, super friendly and so I think it's a cool thing just to get together and play,” said Sim.
Euerle and city leaders said their goal is to bring more traffic to the neighborhood, making the area a destination like Tremont and Gordon Square.
“We wanted to make it a place that was for the residents who live here, but also a destination place for individuals to come as well. And I do believe that we've accomplished both of those by having this wonderful asset for the neighborhood as well as a destination place,” Kazy said.
