QuadReal and Fairgrounds Racket Club are getting set to bring pickleball and padel courts to Assembly Park in Vaughan, Ont.

Assembly Park is part of the South Vaughan Metropolitan Centre. The courts are part of a new club that will open Friday. Membership is free but Fairgrounds will charge an hourly rate for court use and sell branded merchandise.

“In the last few years, we’ve seen a cultural shift to activities that offer more social and emotional value,” said Drummond Munro, co-founder of Fairgrounds, in a news release. “Fairgrounds fosters community by providing social spaces for experience seekers through the power of sport. As padel gains traction in Canada and moves into the cultural mainstream, we want to introduce it to more people in an inclusive way that everyone can enjoy.”

This is the second pickleball project for Vancouver-based QuadReal and Toronto-headquartered Fairgrounds.

Previously, Fairgrounds installed pickleball courts at QuadReal’s Cloverdale mall in Toronto.

“With the success of the Cloverdale location, we are thrilled to meet the demand for padel and pickleball through our partnership with Fairgrounds that reflects a shared vision of creating spaces that enrich the social fabric of the community,” said Crystal Burns, QuadReal’s vice-president of Canadian retail.

QuadReal and Toronto-based Menkes Developments are developing Assembly Park, a new 83-acre creative district located at Highway 400 between highways 407 and 7.The master planned, multi-faceted, mixed-used development is slated to feature several multi-family developments comprising 6,500 residential units.

More and more pickleball courts are coming to commercial properties across the country. Fairgrounds is working with developers across the country to install courts on their properties, the Globe and Mail reported.

Pickleball is a fast-growing leisure sport that incorporates elements akin to tennis, badminton and ping pong. The game is played on a small tennis-like court and players use odd-shaped paddles, rather than the oval ones deployed in ping pong, and a whiffle ball.

Image: CNW Group/QuadReal Development