If you’re moving or house-hunting in Boca Raton, you’ll find a profusion of pickleball. There’s a pickleball club, pickleball clinics and coaches, and three public pickleball court sites about to be four. Boca’s $17 million planned public pickleball indoor and outdoor complex just got the final vote of confidence. All that remains now are city permits before the first shovels in the ground at a planned public recreation site called North Park.
“All these competitors are nipping at our heels, so the quicker we get this going the better,” Boca Paddle team leader Malcolm Butters said. That was minutes before commissioners for the landowner, the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District, approved a 55-page concession agreement.
The public-private partnership requires the concessionaire to “construct at its own cost and expense, and obtain any and all permits” for the building; hire a full-time experienced manager; and operate seven days a week from 7am to 10pm, except for federal holidays or closures needed to repair the facility.
Longtime pickleball champion Raul Travieso said he was “delighted” after the motion was passed. “Boca Paddle will build a beautiful building with amenities,” said Travieso, Florida Southeast District ambassador for the U.S. Pickleball Association. He coaches free classes in Sugar Sand Park, one of two parks that the Beach and Park District oversees.
The district is also bringing the first covered pickleball courts to their Patch Reef Park site. The project will include 16 traditional courts and two that are ADA accessible.
The city of Boca Raton started its own pickleball mania with four outdoor asphalt and hard courts in Hillsboro El Rio Park South when it opened in 2022.
Pickleball courts are also available in the following Palm Beach County parks:
Burt Aaronson South County Regional Park, West of Boca Raton
6 courts
Caloosa Park, Boynton Beach
8 courts, lighted
Carlin Park, Jupiter
6 courts
John Prince Park, Lake Worth
6 courts, lighted
Lake Lytal Park, West Palm Beach
6 courts, lighted
Okeeheelee Park, west of West Palm Beach
6 courts
Indoor pickleball courts (in the multipurpose gymnasiums) are available at the following recreation centers:
Please visit the facility website for details on days and times the indoor courts are available.
West Boynton Recreation Center, Lake Worth
Westgate Recreation Center, West Palm Beach
West Jupiter Recreation Center, Jupiter
