Elite Pickleball fills a former grocery store in suburban Houston

Partners Real Estate aims to capitalize on a popular racquet sport to revitalize a Clear Lake shopping center that lost its anchor tenant more than four years ago.

Houston-based Partners, which acquired the 98,500-square-foot Bay Pointe mall in late 2021, signed a 40,000-square-foot lease with the Elite Pickleball Club, the Houston Business Journal reported.

Elite Pickleball will occupy most of the 68,500 square feet left by Randalls grocery store in early 2020. The remaining 28,500 square feet have attracted interest from coffee shops, smoothie shops and doctor’s offices. Partners hopes to fill the remaining Randalls space with multiple tenants, occupying between 2,400 and 10,000 square feet.

The pickleball anchor is a “big concentration of risk,” Kelli Walter of Partners told the news outlet. “I don’t see us renting to just one other tenant and having the 68,000 square feet just depend on two people paying rent.”

Clear Lake marks Elite Pickleball’s second location in the Houston area, after opening the first in the Heights neighborhood last summer. The Clear Lake location, which will include 14 courts, a food court and a small pro shop, is expected to open early next year.

With Elite Pickleball’s lease, Bay Pointe Mall is 68 percent leased, rising to 75 to 80 percent if current negotiations are successful.

The partners purchased Bay Pointe from Pennington Chen Interests, which has owned the resort since its development in 1994. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Randalls store closed due to poor performance, exacerbated by the opening of a nearby HEB supermarket. The partners entered into an early termination agreement with the grocery chain in fall 2022 and began renovating the complex the following summer.

Elite Pickleball Club joins a growing trend in the Houston area, where the popularity of pickleball has increased, especially since the pandemic. The sport, which combines elements of badminton, ping pong and tennis, has seen a rapid increase in participation between 2022 and 2023, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association.

—Quinn Donoghue