Ace Pickleball Club to Open 11-Court Indoor Facility in South San Jose

Indoor pickleball operators have turned vacant big-box retail into their preferred real estate play, and South San Jose is the latest market to get one. Ace Pickleball Club signed a lease on a formerly empty storefront at 5502 Monterey Road and will convert the approximately 31,000-square-foot space into 11 professional-grade cushioned courts, with a Q3 2026 opening targeted.

The conversion fits a strategy that real estate observers have taken to calling the "picklemall" model: franchise operators securing large, affordable vacant retail footprints and building out multiple courts rather than constructing from scratch. Adaptive reuse cuts capital costs and shortens the path to opening, which matters when a brand is expanding as aggressively as APC.

Ace Pickleball Club was co-founded by Jay Diederich and Joe Sexton and is headquartered in Roswell, Georgia. The company began franchising in 2023, opened 11 new locations in 2024, and entered 2025 with 24 clubs open and more than 125 locations either awarded or in development. The target is more than 75 open locations by the end of 2026. A Folsom, California location is also under development. CBRE is handling APC's national real estate strategy, with brokers Nena Mass and Keelan Twitty leading multi-market site identification.

The demand picture in San Jose makes the location obvious. The Sports and Fitness Industry Association reported 19.8 million U.S. pickleball players in 2024, a 45.8 percent jump from 2023 and a 311 percent surge over three years. Santa Clara County already has roughly 120 public courts, making it one of California's most active markets, yet indoor availability at peak hours stays consistently tight. USA Pickleball tracked 82,613 courts nationwide as of early 2025, with analysts estimating roughly 25,000 more still needed to meet demand.

For the city, the project carries an economic argument alongside the recreational one. Local officials cited an estimated 30 jobs tied to the club and the prospect of restoring foot traffic to a corridor that had gone quiet. San Jose has been tracking the conversion as an example of adaptive reuse of underperforming commercial real estate.

The membership model covers unlimited open play, court reservations, social mixers, clinics, and paddle demos. The San Jose club will also run Glow-In-The-Dark pickleball nights, a signature programming element APC deploys across its network. Vice President of Franchise Growth Conor Hawks has framed the company's mission plainly: "Pickleball isn't just a sport; it's a movement bringing people together."

Buildout and tenant improvements are underway. When the courts open before fall 2026, the 5502 Monterey Road site will offer something that has been in genuinely short supply across Silicon Valley: covered, climate-controlled court time, available regardless of what the weather or the outdoor-court waitlist is doing.