Life Time opens Winter Park club with 13 pickleball courts

Life Time’s new Winter Park club puts pickleball front and center with 13 courts, including 10 outdoors and three indoors, a setup that gives Central Florida players far more than a token strip of asphalt tucked beside a parking lot. The club opened on April 24, 2026, as Life Time’s first athletic country club in the Orlando market, and the court count immediately makes it one of the area’s most significant premium pickleball venues.

The layout is built for real use, not just show. Life Time says the Winter Park program will include court reservations, lessons and leagues, which matters for everyday players looking for structured access rather than scrambling for drop-in space. Five of the 10 outdoor courts are covered, a practical touch in Florida where heat and sudden weather can turn an open court into a tough sell by midday. The outdoor pickleball area also includes lounge and viewing spaces, giving the site the feel of a social club as much as a play destination.

The club itself stretches across five acres and is described by Life Time as a 173,000-square-foot property, while the company’s Winter Park location page lists 85,000 square feet of club space on the same site. Either way, pickleball is being packaged inside a much larger wellness model that includes pools and cabanas, a LifeSpa, café and lounge, Work Club area, Kids Academy and a full fitness floor. That puts Winter Park squarely in the category of high-end, all-in-one recreation, where courts are one piece of a broader membership pitch.

That broader model is exactly why the opening matters to the amateur game. It shows how pickleball has moved from a retrofit sport to a built-in amenity in premium developments, especially in markets like Central Florida where year-round play carries obvious value. It also helps explain why the project drew attention well before opening. Nearby residents had already raised concerns about noise from the planned pickleball courts behind homes, and local reporting put the project near an estimated $48 million health club development.

For players, the new club adds another year-round option with indoor protection, covered outdoor courts and organized programming. For the neighborhood, it is another reminder that pickleball’s growth now comes with both access and impact, especially when the game is built into a major private club rather than a public park.