Douglas County launches brick campaign to fund new pickleball complex

Douglas County is trying to turn its new Herbig Park Pickleball Complex into more than a place to hit a few games after work. Its Buy a Brick campaign, posted April 9, lets donors buy commemorative bricks that will be installed at the complex, with prices ranging from $100 for pathway bricks to $500 for spots near the front parking lot flagpoles.

The campaign is being run by the Douglas County Community Services Foundation, and the money is tied to the larger Douglas County Community & Senior Center project. County materials say that campus is meant to support recreation, youth athletics, social gatherings and senior services, which matters because it frames the pickleball build as part of a broader civic facility instead of a standalone court project. Foundation Chairwoman Renea Louie put that theme bluntly: “We are building our community, one brick at a time.”

That message matters if Douglas County wants to become a real pickleball stop instead of just a local court cluster. The county’s earlier planning for the Herbig project called for eight new courts at 1329 Waterloo Lane in Gardnerville, and meeting materials put the build cost at about $1.2 million. Eight courts is a solid start for league play and casual open play, but it is not yet the kind of court count that pulls in weekend tournament traffic on its own. To become a regional draw, the complex would need a deeper tournament calendar, organized programming that keeps courts full from morning to night, and enough nearby lodging to make a trip easy for players coming from outside the county.

The timing also says a lot. County records show the Herbig Park Pickleball Complex opened with a ribbon cutting on Oct. 17, 2024, and later in 2025 county commissioners accepted Rotary Club of Minden donations for shade canopies and benches. Now the brick campaign is being used to deepen ownership after the opening, which suggests the county still sees room to build out the site and is looking for private dollars to do it.

That is where the foundation comes in. Founded in 2011 as a nonprofit 501(c)(3), it serves as a liaison between Douglas County and private donors, and the county says Louie has raised more than $1.8 million for the foundation. With bricks now being sold for the pathway, activity room, pickleball complex, senior center patio and flagpoles, the county is signaling both demand and a funding gap: the courts are open, but the bigger destination-grade vision is still being assembled piece by piece.