By Kathy Chouteau
The country’s fastest growing sport—pickleball—is looking to set up shop at Richmond’s Craneway Pavilion, potentially taking over the city’s preeminent, indoor community gathering place on the waterfront. The reinvented venue would be called the Craneway Pickleball Pavilion (CPP) and would potentially launch in early 2024, per a July 21 article in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Newport Beach-based PB Development Group hopes to turn the Craneway’s 45,000 sq. ft. space into a membership pickleball club with 16 indoor courts, a pro shop, a so-called stretching and lengthening lounge, a smoothie bar and the already-open Assemble Kitchen restaurant. The company would sublease the Craneway and restaurant from Orton Development, which has a long-term lease from the city, according to the paper.
CPP has set up a website and stated that it aims to host community engagement activities, charity and fundraising events, celebrity exhibitions and professional pickleball tournaments.
Before the CPP can launch, it needs the City of Richmond, the California State Lands Commission and the San Francisco Bay Conservation & Development Commission to sign-off since the venue is designated for use as a public trust, per the article.
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