Pickleball company fills void in Clear Lake shopping center 

Partners Real Estate aims to capitalize on a mega-popular racket 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 Shopping Center in late 2021, has scored a 40,000-square-foot lease from Elite Pickleball Club, the Houston Business Journal reported. 

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

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

Clear Lake marks Elite Pickleball’s second location in the Houston area, having opened its first in the Heights neighborhood last summer. The Clear Lake location, set to include 14 courts, a food and beverage area and a small pro shop, is expected to open early next year.

With Elite Pickleball’s lease, Bay Pointe Shopping Center is 68 percent leased, potentially rising to 75-80 percent if ongoing negotiations are successful. 

Partners bought Bay Pointe from Pennington Chen Interests, which had owned the complex since developing it in 1994. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Randalls store closed due to poor performance, exacerbated by the opening of an H-E-B supermarket nearby. Partners reached 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 surged, especially since the pandemic. The sport, which combines elements of badminton, ping pong, and tennis, has seen a rapid increase in participation from 2022 to 2023, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association.

—Quinn Donoghue 

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