An outdoor sports facility with tennis, padel and pickleball courts may soon open on an empty stretch of Grand Avenue in the West Grove with the City of Miami’s blessing after city commissioners greenlighted the temporary facility on Thursday.
Commissioners agreed to waive the city’s two-week limit for events held on private property so Grove Bimini-Nassau QOZB can build and operate a pop-up sports facility with 19 playing courts on 2.4 acres of vacant land known as the Bimini Block.
Grove Bimini-Nassau, a partnership between Abbhi Capital and Silver Bluff developers Grant Savage and Peter Gardner, eventually plans to build a mixed-use development on the block between Plaza and Hibiscus Streets with 176 apartments and street-level retail.
With groundbreaking on that project several years away, the partners approached the City of Miami in January with the idea of using the land temporarily for a Grove racquet club with playing courts, a clubhouse, and parking.
Silver Bluff’s Savage said the facility could open by late summer. “We still need to get a permit and do drawings, so hopefully within six months,” he said.
Other details – including a commitment by Savage and his partners to use the facility to benefit neighborhood kids – have yet to be worked out, he said.
The resolution and waiver approved Thursday will allow Grove Bimini-Nassau to operate the sports facility from March 1 through December 31. If the company wants to extend that play time, it would need to come back to the city for another waiver.
Javier Gonzalez, a staff aide to Miami District 2 Commissioner Damian Pardo, pointed to the “community benefit” component of the plan as a plus for West Grove families.
“We want the community benefit to be local kids using the courts after school. That was the goal – to engage this part of the community in a sport where you can get a scholarship,” Gonzalez said.
“That would be good if it works out,” said Kimberly Davis, president of the Coconut Grove Optimists Club, which runs a variety of youth sports programming a short walk down Grand Avenue at Armbrister Park.
“We’re doing tennis,” she added. “I would love to do pickleball. I just hope they open it to the community.”
Savage shared preliminary plans for the facility that show the proposed layout, with 12 pickleball courts on the east side of the property, six padel courts on the west, and one tennis court in the middle.
Parking for 29 cars on the interior of the facility would be tucked behind a landscape buffer along Thomas Avenue, where the club would border a residential neighborhood.
The facility would be open daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. according to a letter of intent from the partnership dated January 23 – setting the stage for a possible conflict with Thomas Avenue neighbors over noise and light pollution.
Savage said the preliminary design seeks to minimize those potential impacts. The pickleball courts were placed on the eastern side of the property to minimize noise, he said, and the facility’s light poles will direct light down onto the courts, not outward.
The preliminary plans refer to the project as the Grove Racquet Club, but Savage said the partners had yet to decide whether the club will offer memberships, a fee for one-time access, or some combination of the two.
The resolution approving the waiver was sponsored by Pardo, and passed the City Commission unanimously, without discussion.
This leaves me torn. On the one hand, recreational facilities like this are in short supply and will be used immediately. On the other hand, nowhere in the 2002 Vision Plan for West Grove are there courts like these, but there are pocket parks and smaller “Bahamian” stores and offices all up and down Grand Avenue where the vacant lots are now. In that Vison Plan the historic “shotgun” homes are mostly preserved with additions making them suitable for modern families. With cooperation — and thoughtful, targeted funding – from the City and County, much of what was envisioned could have actually happened. But just a few years later, 89 West Grove properties were sold for just over $10M, and then resold again and again, and the opportunity to create a true Little Bahamas was gone forever. Inevitable? Probably, but still, it hurts when you look at that Vision Plan and what might have been.
Saddest plan I’ve ever seen.
West Grove doesn’t need or want a temporary pop-up Pickleball Park.
West Grove is already in the process of rebuilding its pool at Elizabeth Verrick Park. The very same pool that was neglected for many years and denied preventive maintenance.
Perhaps it’s time to really improve Elizabeth Verrick Park by also restoring the fence, basketballs courts, Ken Treister Mushroom’s and installing two or three permanent Pickelball Courts inside the gym.
What a shame! No. Pickleball may be the new hot sport but it is not an activity that West Grove youth or any youth need to get a college scholarship. Plus it is a very noisy sport. And 1 tennis court? And “padel”? Is that a misspelling for “paddle”? I’d rather see a baseball field or a lacrosse field for the money spent. Or a pop-up robotics center or after-school tutoring center. Or a new building for the Barnyard. Please folks, speak out if you agree.