Grab your paddles: New indoor pickleball club plans spring opening in Riverhead 

Soon all of Riverhead’s pickleball players won’t need to fight for their time on the court at town parks. 

Instead, they’ll be fighting for courts at Box Pickleball, an indoor pickleball club located in part of the space formerly occupied by Kmart in a Route 58 shopping center. The club will have nine pickleball courts, a full restaurant and bar, a pro shop, and an area for cornhole. The club is shooting for a May opening, majority owner Pete Bachmore of Bayport said. 

Much of the inside of the club is made of material recycled from metal shipping containers, which is the origin of the club’s name, Bachmore said.

“I’m very intrigued with the stories of every single container that comes off a boat. They’ve been everywhere, they’ve been all around the world,” Bachmore said. “And we’re doing something pretty cool for the environment, reclaiming these things.”

Riverhead, due to its location and revitalization efforts, is the “most optimal place to reach as many pickleball players as possible on the East End,” Bachmore said.  

“There’s like 1,000s of new players each and every month and there’s just not enough courts to keep up with the demand,” Bachmore said. Indoor courts allow the club to “be open all year round, so people can play all year round and take advantage of an enclosed, climate controlled environment that people will know when they can get a court and have a great place to come and enjoy themselves,” he said.

Pickleball is a tennis-like sport that uses a hollow plastic ball and paddles, and is played on a small court with a net. It can be played in a singles or doubles format and was the country’s fastest-growing sport last year, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association. 

The sport is growing on the professional level, and has attracted big-money investors such as NBA legend LeBron James and retired NFL quarterback Drew Brees, who have both purchased professional teams. The two largest professional pickleball leagues recently completed a merger and received a $75 million investment from a private equity firm and others in the pickleball business. 

Box Pickleball is the first private venture into the pickleball sport in Riverhead. The Town of Riverhead has built many pickleball courts at public parks across town and hosts leagues. The town’s recreation superintendent has said the courts are the parks’ most popular amenities, especially for senior citizens.

Anybody will be able to play with or without a membership at Box Pickleball, Bachmore said. Players will reserve a time to come play and pay a per-person fee per hour. Those with memberships, which will be available for anyone to purchase, will receive discounts and other perks. Bachmore said the club will soon offer 100 lifetime “founder” memberships for $5,000, which will give the member extra special discounts and exclusive events. He said announcements about the founder memberships will soon be found on Box Pickleball’s website and social media pages.

“Recognizing that people play at different times throughout the day, we will be open for as long in the day as people want,” Bachmore said. “People want to come at 6 a.m., we will be open. If people want to come at midnight, we will be open. If there’s enough demand there, we will accommodate. That’s our goal.”

There will also be unique and instructive programming, Bachmore said. “We’re going to have top notch clinics and professionals providing lessons and training, really for everybody — all skill levels,” he said. “We’ll have tournaments. We’ll have leagues. We will have competitions against other facilities on Long Island.”

The courts are being built with a camera setup, so players can record and watch replays of their matches and coaching sessions. The camera setup will also allow for tournament organizers to do events in the club with ease, he said.

There will also be a full restaurant and bar at the pickleball club. “We’ll have live music there. It’s going to be a little bit more of a different atmosphere. A lot of these other pickleball places, you just come play pickleball and leave. I hope people come and stay,” Bachmore said.

As for fans of cornhole, Bachmore said he’s been in touch with the Long Island Cornhole Association which he said is “thrilled” about having a space right next to the restaurant to play the popular lawn game.

Bachmore, an attorney who works for an investment bank, is hoping to expand Box Pickleball across the tri-state area in the future. Riverhead will be his venture’s first location. The business is holding its first Box Pickleball Fest this August at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut.

“If people want a really interesting, cool place to come and play, and have some fun on top of that, we want our place to be the best place to come. That’s our goal,” Bachmore said.