Amid pickleball growth, CityPickle opens New York City’s first permanent location.

The first dedicated Big Apple pickleball club, CityPickle, settled in Long Island City.

CityPickle will open in late spring/early summer this year at The Woodworks at 9-03 44th Rd., which is a newly built red brick industrial facility between 9th and 10th streets near Vernon Boulevard in Queens.

Here, pickleball will be played in four 10,110-square-foot climate-controlled courts on the ground floor with 21-foot-high ceilings.

The public restaurant also offers fine dining and a varied cocktail menu. The large garage door at the 10th Street entrance can be opened for fresh air when weather permits.

Jonathan Rothstein, Kostas Alafoyiannis and Ryan Maltz of Greiner-Maltz Real Estate represented owner/developer Barone Management.

“We welcome CityPickle to the building and it’s also a great convenience for all Hunters Point residents,” said Alafoyiannis, noting that the facility is close to Court Square stations and also one stop on the subway from Central Station to Vernon Boulevard on the boulevard. Vernon. 7 train.

The Sevens also takes place at Hudson Yards, where CityPickle co-founders and longtime friends Mary Cannon and Erika Desai activated outdoor pickleball courts in October. They also showed up at the bustling TWA Hotel at JFK Airport in November.

Newmark’s Caleb Petersen and Ravi Idnani represented CityPickle in a deal with Long Island City in which the asking rent was $42.50 per foot for 10 years with two five-year renewal options.

CityPickle plans to open additional courts in the near future and is currently working with Marty Cottingham, Patrick Steffens and Alexis Odgers of Avison Young to identify new locations.

Long Island City courts will be open all day and evenings, with programs for beginners and experienced players. Courts can be reserved, while private lessons and clinics are among the offerings, which will additionally include pickleball leagues.

The venue will also be available for private events, including corporate team building, birthdays and family reunions.

The 90,000-square-foot building is the first new industrial building built from scratch in the area in 30 years. It still has 17,000 square feet on the second floor, which includes outdoor terraces with amazing views – and is divided into 2,100 square feet.

While the requested rent is $39.50 per foot, the building has a 25-year Industrial Development Agency tax credit and tenants can apply for energy cost savings, a special ConEd business incentive rate, and the Relocation and Employment Assistance Program (REAP), which provides tax credits of up to $3,000 for each employee.

Other tenants on the first and third floors include flexible industrial users and a grocery store that use the 5,000-square-foot open space on the third floor.

CityPickle says demand for the courts is “explosive as New Yorkers fall in love with pickleball.” Because pickleball is enjoyed by people of all ages, it is the fastest growing sport in the US. Roughly 36.5 million Americans played pickleball last year, the equivalent of 14% of all adults, and of those who did, 8.5 million returned after playing eight games or more.

Pickleball has become so popular in the Big Apple that players spar with other sports fanatics and kids in city parks. Meanwhile, developers are adding indoor courts as amenities at places like the Empire State Building and Life Time Sky at 605 W. 42nd St.