Invited Unveils Facility for Fast-Growing Sport on Santander Tower’s 48th Floor
Originally posted by Chad Littell and Candace Carlisle, CoStar News
Invited, the largest owner-operators of private golf and country clubs, opened a pickleball court on the 48th floor of one of the tallest skyscrapers in downtown Dallas that an executive said is the “highest pickleball court in the world.”
The court has been set up in the Tower Club Dallas at Santander Tower. At 20 feet wide and 44 feet long, the court is roughly one-third the size of a tennis court.
Invited has launched the pickleball court in Santander Tower, a 50-story skyscraper, as the sport grows in popularity. It also fills space in the 1.4 million-square-foot tower that has about 180,000 square feet of available office space, according to CoStar data.
The Dallas-based club owner has dubbed the court, “Pickleball in The Sky,” and is opening the court up to both members and nonmembers alike to give it a try. For nonmembers, the court can be reserved on specific days for $45 an hour, the company said. Part of the rental proceeds will benefit Bonton Farms, Invited’s charity partner.
Invited, which has 200 clubs in its portfolio, operates the largest number of racket facilities with more than 800 tennis and 400 pickleball courts. Invited has hosted numerous Professional Pickleball Association events at its clubs and is broadening its pickleball offerings to its members.
In adding the pickleball court in the building is another way the company is engaging with pickleball fans in Dallas and continuing the growth of the sport across its nationwide portfolio of clubs, Invited CEO David Pillsbury said.
Invited also owns the Brookhaven Country Club in the Dallas area. The club is being transformed into a racket club ahead of the 2023 USA Pickleball National Championships, which is expected to be the largest pickleball tournament in history.
The tournament is scheduled to be held Nov. 5-12 at the country club in Farmers Branch, Texas, and feature more than 4,000 amateur and professional players competing on as many as 100 pickleball courts, according to the Professional Pickleball Association.
Invited, a 66-year-old company, has more than 414,000 members in its network of clubs spanning 27 states, Washington, D.C., and two countries outside the U.S.