Article from Retail Insider

Entrepreneur Barry Samberg has opened a unique new pickleball facility in Montreal.

But Club PKL is more than just pickleball, one of the fastest growing sports and fitness activities in Canada. It’s also a fitness complex.

Samberg said Club PKL is on a mission to elevate pickleball as a premier sport and the bar has been raised to deliver an exceptional experience for pickleball enthusiasts right in the heart of downtown Montreal. 

“As pioneers, we’ve introduced the city’s first dedicated and meticulously designed pickleball facility, featuring seven regulation and tournament-approved courts. Additionally, we offer fitness and yoga space to complement your sporting experience. With early morning to late-night hours, we ensure ample playing time, recognizing pickleball’s rightful place in the sports world,” said Samberg, CEO and President of Club PKL.

“We’re more than pickleball. We’re a full premium club. But pickleball definitely drives our business.”

The 24,000-square-foot facility opened in the middle of June in the Griffintown neighbourhood which has been re-gentrified. Samberg took over an existing building, gutted it to the bones, and rebuilt.

“To get this type of location in Montreal is almost impossible. We were very lucky. I’ve been working on the project for three years. I had two places that I thought were pretty good opportunities but didn’t work out for whatever the reason. I happened to be going to Costco with my wife, all of a sudden there’s a sign on the window as we’re driving by this place, I called the landlord and they had just put the sign up two hours before,” recalled Samberg. 

The facility has two fitness studios – one a full gym and a room for activities such as yoga and Pilates.

There is also a lounge for corporate events and member events.

“Pickleball was always at the foundation of what we wanted to do. I had actually been in Florida during COVID for the most part during the winters. I’m a very high level tennis player and a buddy of mine kept pushing me to come play pickleball with him in Pompano in a park,” said Samberg. “And I went to the park. I saw from seven o’clock to 12 o’clock, the place was full – 16 courts. It was insane and the amounts of people.

“I came back from that and I came to my wife and said to her okay I know what my next act is. That’s when I started to work on the project. My wife is a trainer and prior to COVID we worked on a project called Intensity. We were about to open two locations and the goal was to open multiple locations to franchise and then COVID  hit. So we were actually very lucky because we were about to sign a lease literally one week before COVID started. So we pivoted, shut that down basically to see what happens after COVID and during COVID the pickleball thing came up. The craze for pickleball came up.”

The idea came to them to combine pickleball with a fitness facility.

Samberg said there are plans to open more similar facilities. Currently, he is looking for four other locations – one is in the Ottawa area and the others in Montreal.

The company is working with the team at Think Retail for its real estate needs.

“We’re looking at some other locations throughout Canada,” added Samberg. “That will probably be a phase three for us because phase two will be opening closer to home.”