It got cold this week. If you play pickleball, you already know what that means: the outdoor courts are about to become a two-month conversation about whether it is worth it, and then they are gone until spring.
Ours is indoors. It is heated. It is open right now.
What that actually changes
Six months of the year, pickleball in Minnesota is a scheduling problem. Somebody has to find a gym, book a slot, pay for it, and get four people to agree on a time two weeks out.
Here it is a door you walk through. Warm floor, lights on, no reservation, no league, nobody else’s schedule. January at seven in the evening is the same as July at seven in the evening.
Who it is for
Owners. That is the short answer and it is the whole answer. The court is not rented out, not booked by leagues, and not open to the public. It is part of what you own when you own a suite here, the same way the gate and the grounds are.
What that does to a Tuesday night in February is hard to explain to somebody who still thinks of this place as somewhere to park a car. You come out to work on something, you get an hour in, somebody else pulls up, and then there are four of you on the court and nobody is going home at eight.
Why it is here at all
Because a building full of suites is not a community, and we are building a community. The suites are the reason people buy. The reasons people stay are the things that happen in between, when nobody planned anything and the building is warm and there is somewhere to go.
A court takes clear height, a flat slab and heat. We already had all three. It would have been strange not to build it.
Come try it
Bring a paddle. We are at 5000 Odessa Ave NE in St. Michael, and tours are by appointment.