Pickleball club chain, including debut Lakewood Ranch location, shutters

A Sarasota company that at as recently as 2022 said it planned to invest $180 million into opening 15 high-end pickleball centers across Florida has closed.

The company, The Pickleball Club, announced the decision in a LinkedIn post. The closure means the two locations already open, in Lakewood Ranch and Port St. Lucie, are shut down as of Tuesday. The parking lot at the 33,000-square-foot, 12-court Lakewood Ranch location, at 1300 Sarasota Center Blvd., was empty Tuesday afternoon. A sign on the door said it was closed — though as recently as Dec. 16, an Instagram post promoted a six-week elite pickleball player league starting Jan. 9. 

The Pickleball Club Founder and CEO Brian McCarthy didn’t return calls or texts for comment Tuesday afternoon. Calls to the Lakewood Ranch location, with a still-active customer service line, went to voicemail. 

“It is with great sadness that we must announce that we have closed the company,” the LinkedIn post states. “We did not have sufficient financial resources to continue operations. We have started the process of liquidating the company assets, including our two club locations in Lakewood Ranch and Port St. Lucie.”

The statement also says the company “has several other locations that are fully permitted and ready for development. Interested parties should email [email protected].”

Matt Gordon, according to McCarthy and previous Business Observer stories, is a New York investment banker and partner with the company. 

A 30-year United States Navy veteran with a background in engineering, McCarthy founded the The Pickleball Club in 2019. Construction of the debut facility, the Lakewood Ranch location — it’s between Fruitville Road and University Parkway, east of Interstate 75 — began in September 2021.

Over the next two years, the company made multiple press announcements of land purchases and pending new clubs. That includes St. Lucie West and Village Park Center, serving the Villages, in addition to sites under development in Bonita Springs, Fort Myers, Pinellas Park, Orlando and Venice. Purchases it either closed on or was under contract for include a 5.5-acre parcel for $2.8 million in Venice and a $1.75 million parcel in Pinellas Park. 

Speaking to the Business Observer a month prior to opening the Lakewood Ranch location, McCarthy said demand was high. He said some 2,000 people expressed interest in the debut club and 300 or so signed up for early memberships. (Memberships were $1,000 to join in a pre-opening phase, plus a $100 month in dues.) 

McCarthy said at that time the cost of each club to build was between $10 million and $12 million. That’s why, he said, he and his investment partner, Gordon, sought $180 million to open the 15 clubs. The company said it would target private investors, with funding starting at $100,000, to capitalize on the pickleball craze, in addition to debt financing from banks to cover real estate development costs.