Wilmington’s first indoor pickleball facility is gearing up to open its doors.

Owners Jason and Kayse Beasley are putting the finishing touches on Pickle & Taps, a 10-court indoor pickleball venue at 1207 S. 13th St. in Wilmington. Converting the 30,000-square-foot space, formerly occupied by Queensboro shirt company, into a pickleball venue has taken months of hard work with help from friends made through pickleball, Kayse Beasley said.

The Beasleys began playing pickleball in March of 2023 and fell in love with the sport, Jason Beasley said. The couple realized there wasn’t an existing indoor pickleball facility in Wilmington, so they decided to create one.

Although Leland’s House of Pickleball offers indoor play, the facility can be too far for players in some parts of New Hanover County, Jason Beasley said. That’s why location was a key consideration in the couple's building search. They eventually found the building on 13th Street and signed a lease for the space in May.  

“We wanted to be centrally located, and we also wanted to be a part of a neighborhood,” Jason Beasley said. “We feel like we have an opportunity here to help bring some energy back into this part of town.”

Once in the space, it needed a “good bit of demo,” Jason Beasley said. That included removing the existing flooring and painting the ceilings white. But they’ve put most of their energy into the facility's new floors and the fences that divide the courts (shown at right).

“The floor is our largest investment,” Kayse Beasley said.

Throughout the upfit, the Beasleys worked with Dwight Akerlind, owner of local general contracting firm HouseFinch and a fellow pickleball player, and Kaleb Dees, owner of Palmetto Court Pros, a Myrtle Beach company that builds and resurfaces pickleball, tennis and basketball courts.

The floor alone took two to three weeks to complete and involved several layers of various flooring materials and paint, Kayse Beasley said. 

Eight of the facility’s pickleball courts – which have a standard court size of 20 feet by 44 feet – are positioned side-by-side in pairs while the venue's remaining two courts are “championship courts” with more room around the edges. These courts will be used during the final rounds of tournaments or to showcase visiting high-level players, Jason Beasley said. Every court will also be equipped with a camera that players can use to capture videos of game highlights.

The facility has an area that can be rented out for events or pickleball drills. The venue will also serve beer and wine and has courtside space for players to hang out before and after games. 

“We want to build a place for people to come and compete and also to get better,” Kayse Beasley said, “but we also wanted to tap into the social piece of it.”

The Beasleys are putting the finishing touches on the project, including securing a license needed to serve beer and wine, completing work on the facility's bathrooms and kitchen and wrapping up a few final inspections.

“We are truly in the final lap I would say, but they always say the last lap’s the toughest,” Jason Beasley said.

They expect the venue to open its doors in mid-November. Eventually, they plan to host pickleball leagues, clinics and tournaments that are open to the community and to players at various skill levels. 

Kayse Beasley said she sees their first year in business as a “big learn-as-you-go year.”

“For us, it will be a learning curve,” Jason Beasley added, “but we want folks to feel like they had some say in it, and we'll learn a lot, I think, in the first year.”