The pickleball craze is bearing fruit for the Feil Organization.
The Manhattan-based landlord and developer inked a 15-year deal this spring with a Long Island investor for 30,000 square feet at Feil’s East End Commons in Riverhead. The bankrupt retail chain Kmart vacated the space in 2018.
Peconic Pickleball will have nine indoor courts along with a restaurant and drinking hole, the Container Bar & Grill, at a spot where the peninsula divides into the North and South forks.
Bayport resident Peter Bachmore is behind the venture, which seeks to take advantage of the paddle sport’s fast-growing popularity. Jason Rubinstein of Pine Barrens Realty represented Peconic Pickleball in the transaction, which was signed in late March, the Riverhead News-Review reported.
Feil’s East End Commons, at 607 Old Country Road, also known as Route 58, is at the eastern end of a multi-mile corridor of big-box stores, shopping centers and standalone businesses. The 188,000-square-foot retail development is anchored by an 80,000 square-foot BJ’s Wholesale Club, which just renewed its lease. BJ’s was represented in-house by Patrick Netreba in the deal.
Feil’s Randall Briskin represented the firm in both deals, which had asking rents of $20 per foot on a triple-net basis. He said pickleball is gaining traction nationally “at record rates.”
The full-service restaurant, designed by Recon Recycled Container Systems, will be created from shipping containers. Peconic Pickleball plans to have leagues, cornhole boards, tournaments and a pro shop.
The Feil Organization is remodeling the entire exterior of East End Commons while creating smaller retail spaces ranging from 2,000 square feet to 26,000 square feet — an effort to capture both local suburban shoppers and summer visitors to the Hamptons and North Fork.
Pickleball has taken off because the smaller court and slower-moving ball make it easier to play than tennis, squash and other racket sports.
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“Pickleball is the idyllic way to socialize while engaging in physical activity,” Bachmore said. It has become a factor in real estate and also led to some turf wars.
Feil owns over 24 million square feet of retail, industrial and commercial space along with 5,000 residential properties and thousands of acres of undeveloped land across the United States.