More Former Bed Bath & Beyond Stores Are Being Converted Into Indoor Pickleball Centers
Two Bed Bath-turned-indoor pickleball centers opened over the past several weeks and more conversions are in process -- in larger spaces
One of the more unique repurposes of shuttered Bed Bath & Beyond stores?
As indoor pickleball centers.
More than 1/2 dozen ex-Bed Bath suites have been remade for indoor pickleball with others in development and planning to open in 2025.
The earliest Bed Bath-to-indoor pickleball conversions opened in 2023 — after a batch of store closings that occurred even prior to the retailer’s April 2023 bankruptcy.
A typical 20,000-25,000 square foot former Bed Bath & Beyond appears to make for a good conversion into 9 indoor pickleball courts.
At least that is what several different operators have completed at former Bed Bath spaces in Idaho, Utah and Missouri:
The Picklr operates a 9 court indoor pickleball center in a 22,000 square foot former Bed Bath space in Logan, Utah;
Paddle Up Pickleball opened a facility with 9 indoor courts in Spring 2023 in a 25,000 square foot former St. Louis -area Bed Bath; and
S2 Pickleball opened 9 indoor courts (each with reflective paint for glow-in-the-dark pickleball) in a 25,000 square foot former Boise, Idaho Bed Bath store
But the newest Bed Bath and Beyond-turned-indoor pickleball centers are even larger.
Center Court Pickleball opened in December in a 35,000 square foot Bed Bath space in Arizona.
And this past November Ace Pickleball opened a 40,000 square foot pickleball center in former Bed Bath store in Solon, Ohio.
At over 35,000 square feet, the new Center Court Pickleball in Scottsdale and Ace Pickleball of Solon, Ohio are among the biggest Bed Bath-to-indoor pickleball conversions.
But even larger projects are in process.
Paddle & Par is opening a pickleball-centric facility early next year in a 48,000 square foot former Bed Bath & Beyond in the Metro Detroit suburb of Beverly Hills.
The complex is set to include 11 indoor pickleball courts as well as 5 Full Swing golf simulator suites, a wood-fire pizza oven, full-service bar, and a cafe.
So could even larger Bed Bath-to-Pickleball adaptive reuse projects be in store?
Probably not.
Although Bed Bath & Beyond store sizes ranged from ~18,000 square feet to ~100,000 square feet, most stores were approximately 25,000. - 30,000 square feet.
The largest Bed Bath & Beyond stores were in the New York City area — including ~100,000 square foot stores in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
But there will be no pickleball lease at the former Bed Bath in Brooklyn — it was leased to New York City’s Human Resources Administration to house over 700 of its tech support employees.
And ~80,000 square feet of the former Bed Bath store on 6th Avenue in Manhattan will be backfilled by off-price retailer Burlington Stores.
So while more Bed Bath-to-indoor pickleball conversions may be in store, the largest pickleball centers are likely to be created through the adaptive reuse of industrial and distribution buildings.
Or, perhaps, new construction — like PURE Pickleball & Padel, a ~200,000 square foot “pickleball country club” that is planned in Scottsdale, Arizona.